Petit Pays, (“Tiny Country”) is the title of the new book of Gael Faye, franco-rwandan rapper, known for, among others, his album “Pili-pili sur un croissant au beurre” where he sings about the Great Lakes Region, the land where he comes from and where he grew up.
Petit Pays is the story of his childhood in Burundi during the years prior the civil war of 1993. A time of happiness and games . But also a time of violence, where 10 year old Gabriel, the main character, discovers his ethnicity, his mixed-race, and suddenly the paradise becomes hell.
“Petit pays is the story of the end of innocence, the lost paradise”, Gael Faye told in an interview to TV5Monde.
Another time and another childhood and yet somehow so close to that of the children of Girineza today.
GIRINEZA 