Looking at history through the lens of literature can be daunting. It is clear that fiction and history share a bipolar relationship within writing, and constructing a text that engages both elements is a sensitive issue in today's intellectual community. Journalist and novelist Boubacar Boris Diop's Murambi: The Book of Bones suggests that bearing witness to history is not limited to “language, discourse, and image,” but might also include perspective. Perspective offers the reader various accounts of experiences that the novel showcases. The concern, however, is how authentic a text like Murambi can be when: first, the writer himself is an outsider witness to a particular historical period. Secondly, the text is based on factual discourse; historical events. The essay will then examine how Diop approaches 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 addresses key questions related to literature in light of the testimony of history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Murambi: The Book of Bones is highly regarded for its ability to fictionalize historical facts that chronicle history through fictional means. The novel provides a different, but effective, account that “journalistic reports and stories cannot.” Murambi serves as a platform where the “witness” reports factual information about a particular historical event. An interesting thematic element to consider are the various accounts of the experiences of those who lived through the genocide, which run throughout the novel. It is rich in multiple “narratives and perspectives” that serve to support the “human dimension” of the genocide. It 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 elements involved in the making of Murambi: The Book of Bones, particularly that of perspective. He states that there is no connection between the different chapters of the novel. In doing so, it is suggested that their accounts are “fragmentary”. Karin Samuels gives an account of 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 through the use of “narrative perspectives” (Samuel, 37). Murambi's characters are themselves traumatized and therefore memory itself is perverted. This is evident as the shattered structure of the novel brings the trauma and its effects back to life; time and place constantly warp in different chapters of the novel. Furthermore, the “physical fragmentation” of traumatic experiences is present in the narrative and in the characters' perspectives; those who observed and described the “mutilation and dismemberment of bodies.” The reader is offered a variety of individual perspectives. As such, Murambi serves to etch “the experience of victims as part of everyone's memory”. Diop uses fiction to recreate a historical period and to observe the experiences of those who lived through it. It does so by "reviving each of these people, giving them identities." The perspective of the victim, the offender and the "outsider" and their calamities are all addressed in Murambi: The Bookof Bones. In a 2010 interview, Boubacar Boris Diop suggests that even though the genocide was a collective experience, every person lived it. otherwise. “When we look beyond the cry of hatred and terror, beyond the general confusion, everyone is alone.” Therefore, when witnessing such an event in literature, it is important to look critically at "who" is testifying and how this "who" is testifying. 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 asked to travel to Rwanda and stay there for two months. There were fears that events such as the 1994 Rwandan genocide were not documented. There was a lack of concern about such matters. The stay in Rwanda would provide a platform where these writers “had to bear witness to what had happened there” (Tadjo, 426). Diop suggested that African writers have a responsibility to write about and observe traumatic historical events in Africa. Especially those where millions of lives were lost. A movement that has not received the same 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 it” (Tadjo, 430). It is clear that fiction and history share an inverse relationship, and it is a delicate issue when trying to construct a text in which both elements must coexist. This is where Murambi: The Book of Bones gets it right. It gives a concrete voice to those who can no longer speak about it – “recovering, as best we can, the full and complex lives hidden in the statistics of genocide and humanityizing it.” It gives the reader an idea of ​​what the victims and perpetrators have gone through. Those who stood by and did nothing. Through the perspective of these different characters, Diop is able to construct a narrative that not only bears witness to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, but addresses the importance of testimony itself. One question that emerges from the novel's narrative perspectives is "who" is testifying? What position does the witness take and how does this affect the overall authenticity of the novel? Diop is aware of this as he himself is an outsider to Rwanda's history. Speaking to the Rwandans they visited, he says there was a “moral dilemma” about whether he was in a position to “fictionalize” such a traumatic experience. Diop was aware of the sensitivity of telling another's story. Some Rwandans asked him and the other nine writers not to “write fictional accounts but to report what we had actually seen and heard.” It is clear that Rwandans did not want their history to be based on “fictional tales,” as their stories and experiences were real. Furthermore, Diop and the others themselves were not Rwandans. They were outsiders. They could not empathize with the suffering of the Rwandan people. This leads the reader to wonder how authentic Murambi is in accounting for the experiences of the Rwandan people; their story. How accurate is Murambi in witnessing the genocide? Given Diop's position as an outsider. What does the novel witness? How do you address the problem of bearing witness to 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 the issues that Diop recognizes and attempts to address in his novel. It is evident how Diop addresses these concerns in Murambi: The Book of Bones. One way it does this is with the main protagonist Cornelius, an exiled Rwandan teacher who returns to his home country, after the 1994 genocide. He returns to try to deal with the consequences of the genocide: the death of his/10.1080/14725843.2010.518015.