Making us make some sense of genocide: Beyond the cancelled character of Kuseremane in Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor's “Weight of Whispers”

Abstract

This essay attempts a politically and ethically responsible, identity-focused reading of one of the central texts from the new generation of post-didactic Kenyan writers: Yvonne Owuor's extended short story, “Weight of Whispers”, which deals with the post-genocide experience of a particular refugee who is the story's narrator. The interdisciplinary essay examines the way in which this first-person narrator is constructed alongside the extra-textual, postcolonial construction of Rwanda's “Tutsi” and “Hutu” as racialised groups, making explicit the parallels between these two “fictionalised” processes and ultimately concluding that Owuor's ostensibly depressing story can be read optimistically as a consequence of its democratic indeterminacy, in this way empowering the reader to contribute to post-genocide dialogue.

Keywords: Kenyan short stories, genocide, Rwanda, Yvonne Owuor (short story writer)

Tydskrif vir Letterkunde • 43(1) • 2006: 110-121