Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is currently hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and explain why you want to read it. It is that simple.
This week’s book:
Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga
Blurb from Goodreads
In four beautifully woven parts, Mukasonga spins a marvelous recounting of the clash between ancient Rwandan beliefs and the missionaries determined to replace them with European Christianity.
When a rogue priest is defrocked for fusing the gospels with the martyrdom of Kibogo, a fierce clash of cults ensues. Swirling with the heady smell of wet earth and flashes of acerbic humor, Mukasonga brings to life the vital mythologies that imbue the Rwandan spirit. In doing so, she gives us a tale of disarming simplicity and profound universal truth.
Kibogo’s story is reserved for the evening’s end, when women sit around a fire drinking honeyed brew, when just a few are able to stave off sleep. With heads nodding, drifting into the mist of a dream, one faithful storyteller will weave the old legends of the hillside, stories which church missionaries have done everything in their power to expunge.
To some, Kibogo’s tale is founding myth, celestial marvel, magic incantation, bottomless source of hope. To white priests spritzing holy water on shriveled, drought-ridden trees, it looms like red fog over the village: forbidden, satanic, a witchdoctor’s hoax. All debate the twisted roots of this story, but deep down, all secretly wonder–can Kibogo really summon the rain?
Why I Want To Read It
Happy Monday, everyone! Just like that, we are already at the second Monday of the eleventh month of the year. This means that the year is slowly inching toward its inevitable close. How time flies! As always, time takes its natural course, ever flowing forward with no regard for any of us. It does not wait for anyone. This also means that we are less than two months away from welcoming 2027. As 2026 slowly dwindles down, I hope the rest of the year unfolds in everyone’s favor and that the remainder of 2026 will be kind to you all. I hope and pray that everyone is being showered with blessings and good news. As the year gradually approaches its close, I hope you will be rewarded for all the hard work you have put in throughout the year. I also hope everyone has had a good start to the workweek. I wish you all continued success and happiness, and I hope everyone is doing well in body, mind, and spirit.
I know not many people get excited about Mondays (though I am sure a few are out there). Nevertheless, the new week beckons with the promise of hope and fresh starts, and I hope it unfolds in everyone’s favor. Here in the Philippines, the prospect of a super El Niño looms, but I fervently hope and pray that it will not be as devastating as initially forecast. Ironically, with the onset of the Amihan season, the northern part of the country is about to experience cold and breezy evenings, a stark contrast to the stifling heat during the day. Anyway, I hope you gradually gain some momentum as the week progresses and that everyone’s workweek goes smoothly. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well mentally, emotionally, and physically. After concluding my venture into American literature in October, I have since embarked on a less structured reading schedule, as I currently have no central literary motif guiding my choices.
Since I intend to complete my ongoing reading challenges ahead of schedule, my November reading journey is shaping up to be a venture into African literature. I just finished reading Eloghosa Osunde’s Necessary Fiction, which is actually not part of any of my reading challenges. I am about to start reading Yasunari Kawabata’s The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories, underscoring how my year-ender will be a mixed bag. For this week’s featured work, however, I am featuring a work from the continent I am focusing on. For this week’s Goodreads Monday update, I have chosen to feature a book I recently acquired. It was through an online bookseller that I first came across Scholastique Mukasonga. Her name is one that easily piques anyone’s interest. Born in Rwanda, Mukasonga has risen to global recognition through her remarkable literary works. Her debut novel, Our Lady of the Nile, was nominated for the prestigious Dublin Literary Award.
I am, however, featuring a different Mukasonga work. The first novel of hers that I encountered was Kibogo. However, I held back from acquiring a copy because I found it a little too short for my liking. I eventually relented because I want to explore more literary territories. I have yet to read a work by a Rwandan writer. Originally published in 2020 in French as Kibogo est monté au ciel (literally, Kibogo Climbed to the Sky), Kibogo is a work of historical fiction that transports readers to colonial Rwanda in the 1940s. Rwanda was then under Belgian colonial rule, which brought with it Christianity. European Christianity inevitably clashes with ethnic religion and local beliefs. Somehow, this reminds me of another great African writer. Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God also grapples with the same subject. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to immersing myself in the works of Mukasonga. I am hoping to make it part of my venture into African literature this year.
How about you, fellow readers? How was your Monday? What books have you recently added to your reading list? Drop your thoughts in the comments!
For now—happy Monday, and as always, happy reading, and keep safe!
