{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0252486610558531, 'fraction_numerical': 0.016832440703902066, 'mean_word_length': 5.199052132701421, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Writing as Reconciliation: Bearing Witness to Life after Genocide

Yolande Mukagasana is well known as the first survivor of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda to publish her testimony in 1997. Almost 20 years later, she published a new testimonial narrative focusing on life after the genocide. Similarly, survivor Annick Kayitesi-Jozan published a first testimony in 2004 and a second thirteen years later. Why this decision to return to writing after so many years? In order to explore this question, this chapter focuses on their two recent testimonies: Mukagasana's L'Onu et le chagrin d'une négresse (Aviso, 2014) and Kayitesi-Jozan's Même Dieu ne veut pas s'en mêler (Seuil, 2017). Both these narratives oscillate between the past and the present, intertwining painful memories of the past with reflections on these women's active roles in post-genocide society and the legacy they are building for future generations, both in Rwanda and across the diaspora. Through close analysis of their narratives, this chapter interrogates the ways in which their thinking about reconciliation in post-genocide Rwandan society has changed, pointing to shifts in understanding of the role of writing in the post-genocide context and how its potential in facilitating reconciliation might be harnessed.