Small Country is the story of a young person Gabriel, a.k.a. Gabby, in Burundi born of a Rwandan mother and a French father who is a successful businessman. The story begins sometime in 1992 and in essence, tells of a person of mixed parentage and privileged life whose feelings of identity is unclear.

In the story, the ethnic conflict in Rwanda spreads to Burundi and it almost wipes out the family of Gabby’s mother from the Tutsi tribe, forcing Gabby to see life in its entirety including the violence in men.

The novel begins with the 33-year-old Gabriel as an office worker in Paris on his birthday and thinking of his origins and his memories of growing up in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura. He recalls of his younger life of when he is eleven, his naughty deeds with his friends, and an incident with his BMX bike.

While Gabby is living an idyllic life, Burundi’s first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, is assassinated in 1993. There are two tribes in the region, Hutus and Tutsis, with Hutus having the majority in numbers. The two tribes are alike in every way except the differences in the shapes of their noses and their height. Gabriel’s father blames the noses for the enmity between the two factions. Thus, begins the Rwandan genocide in April 1994 and lasts for a hundred days.

There are some insights in the telling of the story such as when the author asks for the refugees who flee their country: “What about the country (they carry) inside them?”

The story is based on the author’s own childhood. It seems to me in trying to talk behind the persona of Gabriel, the author has done injustice to his own childhood. I’d much more prefer to read his own memories rather than his main character’s viewpoint.

Still, for knowing next to nothing about that part of Africa, in fact, any part of Africa and its history, this story was an eye-opener for me and for that, I appreciate greatly what the author has done with his story, and I am very glad I read this book.

feeling empathy toward people from other places that we aren't familiar with.

the author's way of recognizing the horror even though his family and upbringing has somewhat shielded him from it.

read more stories on Africa.

is Gaël Faye, born in 1982 in Burundi to a French father and Rwandan mother. In 1995, after the outbreak of the civil war and the Rwandan genocide, the family moved to France. An author, songwriter and hip-hop artist, he released his first solo album, Pili Pili sur un croissant au beurre, in 2013. Small Country is his first novel. A bestseller in France, it has been awarded numerous literary prizes, among them the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, and is being published in thirty countries worldwide. He lives in Paris.

it shows the different ways of looking at situations and events by different cultures.

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Created Jul 09, 2019 at 3:03pm • Submit your own review...