Small Country
A coming-of-age story set in Burundi during the 1990s, following a young boy named Gabriel as his idyllic childhood is shattered by the eruption of civil war and the Rwandan genocide's spillover into his country.
As we headed down to Bugarama, we were overtaken by the ‘suicide-bananas’: bikers who pedalled as fast as the cars, their racks laden with heavy clusters of bananas or sacks of coal weighing in at tens of kilos.
NOTHING IS SWEETER than the moment when the sun sinks behind the ridge of the mountains. Dusk brings with it the cool of evening and warm colours that deepen with every minute. This is the hour that marks a change in rhythm.
I lived my best years in Kamenge, without realising it, because I was always thinking about the next day, hoping that tomorrow would be better than yesterday. Happiness is something you only see in the rear-view mirror.