On the 18th of June 1994, weeks before the end of the massacres in which hundreds of thousands of her fellow Tutsi, Rwanda’s Bantuspeaking ethnic group, were slaughtered by the Hutu, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse and her mother were fortunate to find a safe passage out of Rwanda with a convoy of children organised by a Swiss humanitarian organisation.

Fifteen years later, after rebuilding her life and becoming a successful novelist, Mairesse is ready to begin the long process of reconstructing her incomplete memories of the escape. Beginning with the BBC team which told the story of the convoy, then by talking to aid workers, journalists, fellow escapees and consulting many archives, she pieces together personal accounts, memories and records to make coherent the forces at work in Rwanda at the time of the genocide.

The Convoy questions and criticises the Western media through which African survivors are very often denied their own voices. 30 years on from the Rwandan genocide, such devastating accounts are now more crucial.