Welcome to the “What We’re Reading” ongoing series where Volunteers talk about the books they’ve been reading at site. Here you’ll find PCVs sharing their thoughts, reflections, and reviews on books of any genre. Leave us a comment below if you’ve also read any of these books!
Cover image courtesy of Goodreads
Bianca Palese, 134 TESS
My name is Bianca and I love to read memoirs, translated literature, the classics, and non-fiction. Right now I’m reading Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from French by Melanie Mauthner. Mukasonga is better known for her 2006 memoir Cockroaches, which discusses the author’s personal experience fleeing from Rwanda due to the mounting violence that culminated in the 1994 genocide. Her first novel, Our Lady of the Nile won the 2014 French Voice Award, Renaudot Prize, the Ahmadou Kourouma Award and was shortlisted for the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award.
Our Lady of the Nile follows the stories of a group of upper class Rwandan girls attending an elite Catholic boarding school perched on the ridge of the Nile river in the 1980s. As the daughters of esteemed politicians and businessmen, we watch as these young girls try on their parents’ preconceptions and attitudes, transforming the school into a microcosm of the country’s mounting racial tensions. As they go through girlhood into becoming young women, they decipher their role in society and try to navigate which customs to follow, those they are taught in school by their white European teachers or those of their heritage.
Our Lady of the Nile explores themes of identity, womanhood, colonialism, and religion. I had to continually remind myself that the story takes place in the 1980s because the racism and misogyny the girls face from the French and Belgian staff at their school is so overt you’d think it was taking place in the 17th century. Every time the author mentions Kraft cheese or the movie theater the reader is reminded that the effects of colonialism didn’t just go away on independence day. The repeated juxtaposition between Rwandan culture and European culture highlights this theme even brighter. While the young girls admire the French, going so far as to bleaching their skin and learning the language, they often resort back to their traditional customs. When the school hires a French cook, the girls sneak in treats only their moms can make to satisfy their cravings. Instead of going to the church to pray, they sneak away to local witches and spiritual mediums. They’ll write in their school essays, “it was the Europeans who discovered Africa and dragged it into history,” all the while seeking sacred secret keepers of the ancient kingdom. To survive is to play their role in the white man’s delusions and hope that he chooses their side, Hutu or Tutsi, when the ethnic tension finally boils over.
I would recommend this book because I think it gives a very insightful and nuanced understanding of the tensions leading up to an infamous tragedy. The author does a great job of slowly building up to the climax which only rears its ugly head in the very last pages, yet she doesn’t bore the reader along the way. Maybe it’s only because I was ignorant to much of the historical context of the plot, but I felt like every chapter had shock value on its own. I love books that fall into this category of historical fiction because I think that learning history through realistic stories instead of numbers helps us to humanize the experience and develop a deeper sense of empathy. If you can handle a sadly sinister story and are curious about parts of the world that remain mysterious to the American school curriculum, I would totally recommend reading Our Lady of the Nile.
Sticky Rice 
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