Witnessing history through the lens of literature can be intimidating. It is obvious that fiction and history share a bipolar relationship within writing, and the construction of a text involving both elements is a sensitive issue in the intellectual community today. Murambi: The Book of Bones by journalist and novelist Boubacar Boris Diop suggests that the testimony of history is not limited to "language, discourse and image", but could also include perspective. Perspective offers the reader various accounts of experiences that the novel highlights. The concern however is to what extent a text such as Murambi can be authentic when: firstly, the writer himself is an outsider witness to a particular historical period. Second, the text is based on factual discourse; historical events. The essay will therefore examine how Diop takes up the challenge of bearing witness to history through literature – through the exploitation of perspective. The essay will examine Murambi: The Book of Bones and other texts surrounding the novel to see how Diop uses fiction to construct historical experience and how he approaches key questions relating to literature in light of the testimony of history . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayMurambi: The Book of Bones is highly regarded for its ability to fictionalize historical facts through fictional devices. The novel provides a different, but effective, narrative that “journalistic narratives and stories cannot.” Murambi serves as a platform on which the “witness” reports factual information about a particular historical event. An interesting thematic element to examine is the various accounts of the experiences of those who lived through the genocide, which extend throughout the novel. It is rich in multiple “stories and perspectives” that serve to support the “human dimension” of the genocide. This helps reinforce the importance of telling the story accurately – a key issue that Diop addresses throughout the novel. In a 2010 interview, Diop talks about many of the elements involved in the making of Murambi: The Book of Bones, including perspective. He specifies that there is no connection between the different chapters of the novel. In doing so, it suggests that their accounts are “fragmentary.” Karin Samuels describes the nature of trauma: “the experience of trauma divides and fragments the self and therefore the “structure” of trauma, as such, is disjointed, non-linear, dreamlike…. And fragmented.” Murambi's fragmented narrative simultaneously reflects the "destructive nature of trauma" and offers accounts of people (in terms of fictional characters) and their experiences using "narrative perspectives" (Samuel, 37). Murambi's characters are themselves traumatized and therefore memory itself is perverted. This is evident as the broken structure of the novel brings the trauma and its effects to life; time and place constantly distort throughout the different chapters of the novel. Additionally, the “physical fragmentation” of traumatic experiences is present in the narrative and perspectives of the characters; those who observed and described the “mutilations and dismemberment of bodies”. The reader is offered a colorful palette of individual perspectives. As such, Murambi serves to engrave “the victims’ experience as part of everyone’s memory.” Diop uses fiction to recreate a historical period and observe the experiences of those who lived through it. He does this by “reviving each of these people, by giving themgiving an identity. The perspective of the victim, the perpetrator, the “outsider” and their calamities are all addressed in Murambi: The Book of Bones. In a 2010 interview, Boubacar Boris Diop suggests that although the genocide was a collective experience, every person lived through it. differently. “When we look beyond the cries of hatred and terror, beyond the general confusion, everyone is alone.” Therefore, when witnessing such an event in literature, it is important to take a critical look at “who” is witnessing and how that “who” is witnessing. Diop also talks about the making of Murambi: The Book of Bones – how and why it was made. He and nine other African writers were invited to travel to Rwanda and stay there for two months. There was concern that events like the 1994 Rwandan genocide would go undocumented. There was a lack of concern on these issues. The stay in Rwanda would provide a platform in which these writers “had to bear witness to what happened there” (Tadjo, 426). Diop suggested that African writers have a responsibility to write about and observe traumatic historical events in Africa. Especially those in which millions of lives were lost. A movement that has not received as much international attention as the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Diop admits that "literature certainly cannot do everything, but we cannot ignore” (Tadjo, 430). It is clear that fiction and history share an inverse relationship, and this is a sensitive issue when attempting to construct a text in which both elements must coexist. This is where Murambi: Book of Bones gets it right. It gives a factual voice to those who can no longer speak about it – “recovering, at best, the full and complex lives hidden in the statistics of genocide and restoring their humanity”. It gives the reader an insight into what the victims and perpetrators experienced. Those who stood there and did nothing. Through the perspective of these different characters, Diop is able to factually construct a narrative that not only “witnesses” the 1994 Rwandan genocide, but also addresses the importance of being a witness himself. A question that arises from the narrative perspectives of the novel is “who” is a witness? What position does the witness take and how does this affect the overall authenticity of the novel? Diop is aware of this because he himself is a stranger to the history of Rwanda. Speaking to the Rwandans they visited, he says there was a "moral dilemma" over whether he was able to "fictionalize" such a traumatic experience. Diop was aware of the sensitivity of telling someone else's story. Some Rwandans asked him and the nine other writers not to “write fictitious accounts but to report what we had actually seen and heard.” It is obvious that Rwandans did not want their history to be based on “fictional narratives” – because their stories and experiences were real. Besides, Diop and the others themselves were not Rwandan. They were strangers. They could not understand the suffering of the Rwandan people. This leaves the reader wondering how authentic Murambi is in his relationship to the experiences of the Rwandan people; their story. To what extent is Murambi a witness to the genocide? Given Diop's outsider position. What does the novel demonstrate? How does he approach the issues of witnessing history through literature? What does this mean for literature in light of writings on historical atrocities and the credibility of texts like Murambi? These are issues that Diop recognizes and is trying to address/10.1080/14725843.2010.518015.