The Cultural Services of the French Embassy present “Words and Conflicts”, a discussion of Scholastique Mukasonga‘s Our Lady of the Nile and Jean-Godefroy Bidima’s Law and the Public Sphere in Africa: La Palabre and Other Writings.

Examining two outstanding books (Scholastique Mukasonga’s novel on an all-girls school during the nascent Rwandan conflict that left up to 1,000,000 people dead, and Jean-Godefroy Bidima’s non-fiction work on the role palaver has played, or can play, in a conflict of such magnitude), the panelists will ponder the notion of conflict and justice, as well as the power of words in building a durable reconciliation.

With Jean-Godefroy Bidima (philosopher, Chair in Francophone Studies at Tulane University) and Scholastique Mukasonga (novelist). Moderated by Adam Shatz (contributing editor at the London Review of Books). Held in partnership with Archipelago Books and the Institute for Public Knowledge.