Lit.COLOGNE 2026: Literature from Rwanda at DEG

Award-winning Rwandan author Scholastique Mukasonga presented her book ‘Sister Deborah’ in the DEG Atrium as part of the international literature festival lit.COLOGNE 2026.

The book, which was recently published in German and longlisted for the SPIEGEL Book Prize, tells the fascinating story of an American missionary in Rwanda in the 1930s. Her vision of a female messiah leads to conflicts with the church and the colonial power – which are echoed again decades later when an academic called Ikirezi attempts to find out the truth behind Deborah’s disappearance.

The reading event was moderated by literary scholar and former Cologne mayor Angela Spizig, who allowed the 350-strong audience to glean additional context and a deeper understanding.

Reminder of genocide and personal loss

In 1994, conflicts between the Hutu and Tutsi populations in Rwanda led to a brutal genocide of the Tutsi minority that claimed up to a million victims. Scholastique Mukasonga herself lost 37 family members, including her mother. As she explained to Angela Spizig: “I had to write for fear of losing those memories”. For her to be able to go to school in the first place was a rare privilege that was only afforded to around ten percent of Tutsi children at the time. Today, Mukasonga – who has been living in France since 1992 – sees it as her duty to pass on the memories and the pain in the form of stories. She considers herself a storyteller rather than an author – as someone who brings buried experiences to the surface again: “My books are like tombstones for the people who are no longer alive.”

Memorable reading by Maddy Forst

One particular highlight of the evening was the urgent performance by actress Maddy Forst, who read selected passages from the novel’s German translation. In closing, she also spoke about another project close to her heart: the staging of her graduation piece ‘In meiner Haut’ (In My Skin), for which she received the Folkwang Prize at the Schauspiel Essen theatre.

DEG is a longstanding partner to lit.COLOGNE and regularly opens its doors for readings so that it can offer a platform to authors from its partner countries and pave the way for a cultural exchange. Last year, Peruvian novelist Gabriela Wiener was invited to DEG for a reading from her book ‘Undiscovered’ as part of lit.COLOGNE.

Learn more about lit.COLOGNE