Beyond Despair - The Rwanda Genocide Against the Tutsi Through the Eyes of Children - english translation of Hélène Dumas book

In 2006, orphaned children aged between 8 and 12 years old at the time of the Tutsi genocide wrote in notebooks about their experiences during that dark period. This writing workshop was organized by Avega-Agahozo, an association of Tutsi genocide survivors. Ultimately, the association collected 150 school notebooks. However, these accounts, initially intended for publication, ended up being passed from one archival fund to another for years.

In 2016, Hélène Dumas finds these accounts on the shelves of the National Commision for the fight against Genocide and decides to transcribe the stories, experiences, emotions and observations of these childrenabout these dark period of Rwanda's history.

Hélène Dumas structures the book into three sections, remaining faithful to the three phases described by the young writers: "life before," "life during," and "life after" the genocide. The author faithfully transcribes the exact testimonies of the children, with cruel realism and vivid emotions. However, Hélène Dumas also includes contextual and thematic analyses that make the children's testimonies even more intense and profound.

The english translation of  "Sans ciel ni terre" features an original preface written by Louisa Lombard, an anthropologist specializing in culture and an associate professor at Yale University in the United States.

"Sans ciel ni terre" has been awarded multiple times since its publishing in France including among others, le prix lycéen du livre d'histoire in 2021and the prix d'Histoire de la Fondation Pierre Lafue. In the United States, he was also awarded the Albertine Prize

This book has been translated into English by Catherine Porter and published in the United States at the Fordham University Press editions with the support of the Foundation for the Memory for the Shoah.