Metamorphoses of a Rwandan woman in self-narratives

the emancipatory journey of Scholastique Mukasonga

Abstract

This article reflects on the story that the Rwandan author, Scholastique Mukasonga, writes about herself in her book A Beautiful Diploma. The narrative describes her experiences of fighting for social emancipation, autonomy and intellectual freedom, symbolized by her achievement of a diploma recognized in France, the country to which she emigrated after graduating in Burundi. Defying prejudices and images of control, Mukasonga actively elaborates her metamorphosis, designing other alternatives for her life, different from those supposedly already destined for her. As a transclass African woman in France, her self-definition demonstrates the courage to identify the aspects and dispositifs of power that limit her self-realization and, at the same time, to create tactics of action that allow, in a situated manner, the care of herself and others as an ethical responsibility. We seek to highlight how a black woman, survivor of a genocide, emancipates herself through her writing and simultaneously redefines the social and loving bonds that support those who inhabit her days and nights.