Haiku by Rwandan poetesses

illuminations of being

Andrea Grieder

pp. 253-270

in: John Clammer, Ananta K. Giri (eds), The aesthetics of development, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

This chapter is partly drawn from my experience of animating a creative writing workshop for women in Kigali and explores poetic expression in Rwanda. In particular, it focuses on the Haiku and how, when this celebrated Japanese verse form is transposed and adapted to a Rwandan context, it teaches a specific way of being in the world, a transcending truth and a path to knowledge. This chapter also shows the Rwandan poetesses using the Haiku form to express both their links to their own social and cultural environment and their connection to nature and its healing power.