Disability, Trauma and Genocide: Narrative and Metaphor in Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi, the Book of Bones (2006) and Véronique Tadjo’s the Shadow of Imana (2002)

This article examines the representation of disability and trauma within the context of the 1994 Rwandan genocide through a comparative literary analysis of Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi, The Book of Bones (2006)¹ and Véronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana (2002).² Both texts are products of the 1998 project ‘Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire’ (Rwanda: Writing as a Duty to Memory).³ It argues that the authors employ distinctive narrative strategies to grapple with the genocide’s legacy. Read in the context of disability studies, Diop’s polyvocal novel deconstructs Western perceptions of the genocide as an irrational “tribal” conflict by foregrounding the calculated, bureaucratic rationality of evil embodied by Dr. Karekezi. Conversely, Tadjo’s testimonial travelogue utilizes physical disability, particularly blindness and muteness, as a central metaphor for the psychological trauma that inhibits both memory and reconciliation.