Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse — Ejo

Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse is a French-Rwandan writer and a survivor of the genocide against the Tutsi. She is the author of three books, and several collections of short stories and poetry. Her writing has received a number of literary prizes in France and abroad. Together with Beata we will read and discuss selected parts of her short stories collection "Ejo".

short description:
In Rwanda, the word ‘ejo’ means both ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’. A single word to recall times gone by and to tell of what life might be like after the Tutsi genocide. The thirty short stories in this collection offer a tender and lucid glimpse into the private lives of women and children whose destinies have been upended by history. A mosaic of tones, ranging from disillusionment to hope, reaffirming our shared humanity.

Victoire Karera Kampire, curator of When facing erasure... and one of Beursschouwburg's associated artists, is currently developing a new film that will also be titled "Ejo", after the same Rwandan time concept, and inspired by Beata's book.

synopsis:
On the VHS tape of my parents’ wedding, the faces of our relatives appear, most of whom were lost in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. Drawing on this rare archive and a constellation of testimonies, “Ejo” explores how a haunted memory is passed down through the generations, from exile. My parents’ thwarted love story becomes the starting point for an intimate and collective narrative: that of a family, of a diaspora, seeking to maintain a link between the living and the absent, between yesterday and tomorrow.