Primary tabs
From the Wall to the Bridge (Dieudonné Bacinoni)
A Christian Tutsi man, a Muslim Hutu woman, two families sworn to keep them apart. A tragic-romantic novel about what ethnic labels can still destroy — and a love that refuses to yield.
They're students on the Kinindo campus of Université Lumière in Bujumbura, in their second year of law. In 2021, Bienvenu Kaze, a Christian Tutsi young man, falls hopelessly in love with Mariam Keza, a Muslim Hutu young woman. The two lovebirds vow to build a life together. Their troubles begin right there.
When two families swear to stop it all
Two of Keza's brothers swear to kill Kaze, branding him a *kâfir*. Two of Kaze's sisters turn against Keza over her ethnicity; she faces insults and accusations across social media. Each time an incident occurs, police step in and arrest the suspects. Sabotage or not, the lovers eventually marry.
Through this novel, Dieudonné Bacinoni — twenty years in exile in Rwanda, a former CNDD-FDD combatant, now a recognised novelist — implicitly indicts the ethnic morpho-psychological traits forged by Belgian colonisers, the very ones that plunged Burundi into war. Absurd, isn't it?, he asks as he closes the book.
A novel you'll read in one sitting — order it and judge for yourself.
- Author: Dieudonné Bacinoni
- Genre: tragic-romantic novel
- Language: French
- Pages: 118
- Weight: 145 g
