Hewa Rwanda - Letter to the absent

Hewa Rwanda - Letter to the absent description

Every year, Dorcy Rugamba returns to his family’s home in Kigali, Rwanda. Ivy still climbs the walls, calla lilies grow on the terrace, the palm and papaya trees are still there. His return was, however, impossible for many years.

Thirty years after the genocide in Rwanda, actor, author and director Dorcy Rugamba brings to life his work Hewa Rwanda – Letter to the absent, a profoundly moving tale of his family, culture and spirituality. In tandem with Senegalese multi-instrumentalist and singer Majnun, Rugamba presents a musical reading from this memoir.

A love letter to those who are no longer here, and a hymn to the living, he addresses his father, mother, and all those who are absent. Rugamba speaks of what he saw and what he learnt from them, and the time it took him to accept the unacceptable. He then asks himself: how can we translate into words what is out of our reach?

Dorcy Rugamba, a major figure of the Rwandan cultural scene brings us this moving, timeless account, carried along by powerful writing and a voice of rare intensity.