Sister Deborah par Scholastique Mukasonga (review)

Reviewed by: Sister Deborah par Scholastique Mukasonga Kate M. Bonin Mukasonga, Scholastique. Sister Deborah. Gallimard, 2022. ISBN: 978-2-072-99669-6. Pp. 148. Positionality is key to this gripping novel woven of several conflicting narratives of the same series of mysterious events. The original (not the only) first-person narrator is Ikirezi, a small, sickly girl living in the Rwandan village of Nyabikenki, at some point between the World Wars. The child's eyes follow the arrival of a new group of Christian missionaries: not the white, Belgian Catholics she is used to; but rather a group of Black Americans, who preach a new version of the Holy Word. The Second Coming is imminent; the new Jesus will be Black, and (gasp!) female. This radical message fosters tension among various, competing local authorities: the established missionaries, the local Rwandan chief, and the Belgian colonial administration. Meanwhile, the woman and girls of the village are drawn to the newcomers, especially to the enigmatic "Sister Deborah," who looms almost larger than life in the little girl's memory. Sister Deborah (apparently) serves as a helpmeet to Reverend Marcus, the (ostensible) leader of the mission: a character who clearly recalls the real-life Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) and his "Back to Africa" movement of the 1920s. Or does Sister Deborah's agenda differ from that of Reverend Marcus? She carries an iron cane (an item of occult power, which may or may not have belonged to the Angolan warrior Queen Nzinga), and sits on a termite mound as though it were a throne, a site from which she cures the ailments of women and girls with a mere touch of her hands. Is she a witch, a charlatan, a prophetess, a threat? The answer depends on whom you ask. For their part, the village women are drawn to the dynamic Sister Deborah, and are emboldened by her to put down their tools: what is the point of tilling the fields, if the (woman-ruled) earthly paradise is just around the corner? Further, they cease sleeping with their husbands; and even graduate to acts of sabotage against the colony, uprooting coffee plants (a crop that the colonizers have forced the Rwandans to cultivate). Colonial authorities respond with military force: but what exactly happens next? The official report conflicts with eyewitness testimony; rumors fly; and—alive or dead—where does Sister Deborah disappear to? This question still grips Ikirezi years later, although her perspective has shifted: no longer a sickly child, she has become "Miss Deborah Jewels," a renowned anthropologist and Africanist who holds a faculty position at Howard University. With scholarly rigor (and enjoying perfect health!), she digs into both past and present on a quest to rediscover the elusive Sister Deborah. With this fantastic tale of miracles and crimes, prophets and swindlers, the Rwandan novelist Scholastique Mukasonga explores issues ranging from women's leadership to women's health; from colonial power struggles to syncretic visions of what paradise on earth might look like, if it were ruled by a "Mère Afrique." Wonderfully inventive, poignant, funny, sad, and subversive, this novel is a page-turner, with an ending that sends shivers down one's spine. Highly recommended. End Page 142 Kate M. Bonin Arcadia University (PA) Copyright © 2024 American Association of Teachers of French