A review by sam_bizar_wilcox
Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga

challenging informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

Possibly Mukasonga's best novel -- it's a mysterious and spare drama about a hillside in Rwanda, where the legend of a messianic Kibogo abounds and conflicts with the teachings of the Catholic padris who represent European colonization, but its more about the way that people resist being colonized, even without realizing it, by holding onto their myths and traditions. The ending is particularly elliptical and strange, which makes this, to my memory, Mukasonga's most oblique (and enchanting) novel. She is one of the most interesting francophone writers accessible to an English-speaking market, and this book might be my favorite of hers (though Our Lady of the Nile is due for a reread).