Hewa Rwanda
Lettre aux absents

Every year, Dorcy Rugamba returns to his family home in Kigali, to the ivy covering the walls, the callas and anthuriums on the terrace, the palm and papaya trees at the entrance, Mount Jali to the north and Mount Kigali to the south. But for years, this journey home was impossible.

This book is at once a love letter to those who are no longer here, a hymn to life, and a piece of ancestor worship. In it, Dorcy Rugamba addresses his father, his mother and those who are no longer here. He gives an account of what he saw and learned by their side, the child and young man he was, and how long it took later for him to accept the unacceptable. He holds the departed close to his heart, honouring their memory and their lives, exploring the world of the past in order to express its beauty and poetry. He asks himself, How do you put into words something that is beyond reach?

A writer and leading figure of the Rwandan cultural scene, Dorcy Rugamba offers us a moving narrative, bolstered by a pen and voice of rare intensity.

These past few years, all my work as an artist has been about fighting the enterprise of annihilation by giving victims a face, a name, a life and a reality, so that they cease to be mere numbers or victims of torture seen only through the prism of the atrocious conditions of their disappearance. Long before that, they were individuals with lives, dreams, plans, families – and it is up to us to breathe new life into them.

An actor, author and director, Dorcy Rugamba is the co-author of a collective work that marked an epoch, Rwanda 94. In 2001 he created the Urwintore collective dedicated to producing Rwandan artists on local and international stages. In 2012 he founded the Rwanda Arts Initiative, an arts centre in Kigali. In March 2020 he created Les Restes suprêmes, a major work acclaimed by critics, and in October 2020 he collaborated with Abderrahmane Sissako and musician Damon Albarn on the staging of the opera Le vol du Boli at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. In 2024, together with the Rwanda Arts Initiative, he founded the Kigali Triennial of contemporary art.

Majnun is a charismatic and inspired artist. His name, which means ‘madman’ in Arabic, was a deliberate choice because, for him, madness is a space of freedom in which he can explore the depths of his soul. Originally from Senegal, he grew up in an environment where art was everywhere. It was there that he discovered hip-hop. But his encounter with the guitar marked the start of a journey that would lead him to become a multi-instrumentalist. Over the years, he has endeavoured to develop a resolutely eclectic art in keeping with his nomadic lifestyle. His voice reflects his vivid imagination. It also tells us, with great sincerity and emotion, about the incredible epic that is his life and which he continues to draw on … This time, the artist has chosen to speak to us of his country of origin.

A corealisation Festival des Libertés, Midis Poésie et Théâtre National Wallonie Bruxelles