The Girl Who Smiled Beads: Chapter 1  Summary & Analysis

The narrative flashes back to when Clemantine is a child and living in Kigali, Rwanda. Her family nicknames her Cassette because she asks lots of questions and imitates her sister Claire, who is 14 and confident. When Clemantine’s mother sends Claire on errands, Claire saves most of the money by making deals with the vendors. Clemantine’s family lives in a stucco house with a red roof. In the backyard is Clemantine’s mother’s garden. In the front yard is a mango tree that Clemantine and her brother Pudi climb and pretend is a bus taking them to Canada.

Clemantine’s mother is regal-looking with beautiful gaps between her white teeth. She goes to church in the morning and spends the afternoon in her garden—her favorite place—where she teaches Clemantine the names of flowers and fruit trees. On Saturdays, she brings Clemantine, Pudi, and Claire to clean the homes of elderly people. Girls from the country often stay with the family to learn about city life before marrying, and Clemantine and her siblings do chores with them. Claire hates housework and dreams of studying iburayi—“abroad.” Clemantine dreams of eating ice cream and growing into Claire’s clothes.

Clemantine’s mother dresses modestly. Catholic-Rwandan tradition instructs people, especially girls, to be invisible. Clemantine struggles with being proper and quiet, and she’s curious about her Muslim and Zairean neighbors who are more exuberant. When she visits them, she looks for the secrets to their lifestyle. Clemantine’s mother tells her not to be so curious.

One day, a friend of Clemantine’s mother dies. Clemantine’s mother cries, which is unusual because adults in Rwanda aren’t supposed to cry. Clemantine and her mother walk through Rwanda’s hills to the funeral. Clemantine tries to see if God is talking to anybody, but the people are composed during the service. She wants to know the truth about death, but no one will tell her. Her mother says death is God welcoming a person home. Clemantine wonders if a person can refuse God’s invitation home.

Clemantine grew up with the concerns of any young child. She wants to dress like Claire or like Pudi, who loves Puma and Adidas. She nags her nanny, Mukamana, for stories that explain the world. Clemantine’s favorite story is about a magical girl who wanders the earth smiling beads. The story is open-ended, and Mukamana always concludes it however Clemantine wants her to. Clemantine wants to be like Mukamana when she grows up, telling stories and dancing.

Clemantine’s father runs a commercial car service. He is a big man with a broad smile. He works hard to provide a middle-class life for his family. Clemantine likes to bring him his slippers in the evening in exchange for a sip of his beer. When he comes home to nap in the afternoons, Clemantine is supposed to be quiet, but one time she forgets. Clemantine’s mother usually disciplines the kids—punishing them until they confess—but this time, her father slaps her across the face. It’s the most cruelty Clemantine has ever experienced.

When Clemantine is five, she gets a baby sister and starts Kindergarten. Neither Claire nor Pudi went to kindergarten because their parents didn’t have enough money at the time. Therefore, Clemantine now feels very special. Once, on a rainy day, Mukamana picks her up and lets her wear Claire’s green raincoat and umbrella. Clemantine wants to walk the long way home to show it off, but Mukamana says no. Soon after, Mukamana disappears. When Clemantine asks her mother why, her mother says “intambara”—the conflict.

Clemantine gets another nanny, Pascazia. One day, Pascazia picks Clemantine up from school and they pass a group dancing and waving green, gold and red flags. Clemantine wants to join the festivities, but Pascazia refuses. The next week, they pass a group waving more flags. They are stoning someone for stealing. Clemantine wonders if these are the angry men from the hills Mukamana once told her a story about. At home, Clemantine’s mother is angry that they walked that way. A few days later, Pascazia disappears and Clemantine stops going to school.

Instead of expanding, Clemantine’s life shrinks. She is forbidden to play outside or to play with her best friend, Neglita. The radio is always on. Around this time, Clemantine watches Rambo at a neighbor’s house. All the neighborhood kids start dressing like Rambo and playing with fake weapons. Houses are robbed but no one explains why. The robbers leave grenades behind that blow up the houses.

A security guard starts standing in Clemantine’s yard. The curtains are always closed, and a drumming noise comes from far away. Clemantine’s mother stops going to church, her father stops going to work, and no one goes to the market. The electricity flickers, and Clemantine’s parents tell her to hush. When she turns six, a grenade blows up her neighbor’s house.

Soon after, Clemantine’s uncle dies. When Clemantine asks, her mother says he wasn’t answering God’s invitation home. Clemantine’s parents talk about “them.” The family sits in the house with the lights off. No one talks or plays. Pudi tries to explain that Clemantine can’t go outside because an evil bird will eat her, and thunder will get her. It thunders all the time. Pudi tells her to hide between the ceiling and roof if anything happens. Another neighbor’s house is burned. The robbers leave Clemantine’s parents a note saying they’ll return for their girls.

One day, Clemantine’s mother tells Clemantine and Claire to pack things to go to their grandmother’s in Butare—a fairy tale house with sunflowers around it. The next morning, a man comes in a van. Clemantine wants to take a mug she made to show her grandmother, but her mother puts her in the van with Claire and tells her not to talk. On the way to Butare, they pick up other girls. Clemantine’s cousins are at her grandmother’s. Her grandmother won’t tell her when her parents and Pudi are coming. A few nights later, her grandmother takes everyone to another house. The next night, they hide in a pit in the yard while explosions go off around them.

One day, there is a knock on the door. Clemantine’s grandmother gestures for Clemantine and Claire to run. They crawl on the bellies through the sunflowers, Clemantine dragging a rainbow towel. In the trees, they find people with bloody wounds. Clemantine can’t understand how these huge wounds were made, but Claire won’t talk. They start walking, listening to horrible laughs, screams, and cries. They cover themselves with dirt and leaves for camouflage. Clemantine’s thoughts are a jumble of pain and fear. 

Clemantine and Claire hide whenever they hear sounds. Clemantine is too afraid of Claire’s expression to look her in the eyes. Clemantine says she wants to go home, but Claire says they must go. A woman offers them food, but they are too afraid to take it. Then they follow a man who says he can lead them to safety. They see dead bodies floating in a river, but Clemantine thinks they are sleeping. Night falls and it pours rain. Clemantine thinks this is hell, but not the hell her mother had told her about—a fire lit by sins. They hide in a dilapidated shack. Clemantine’s toenails fall out, and she doesn’t know how old she is.

Clemantine and Claire find an abandoned school. The windows are broken, and frightened people hide inside. They stay until night falls and then start walking. Clemantine isn’t sure if it’s days or weeks later that they hear children playing in a cornfield. They crouch in the cornfield and eat corn kernels. Claire finds a woman and explains that they came over the hill, and their family is following soon. The woman says they can stay till their family comes. Some farmers give them water and sugarcane. Claire whispers to Clemantine not to tell anyone anything.

Clemantine and Claire stay in the woman’s hut where she, her husband, and her four children sleep on a straw mattress. Clemantine wakes up with itchy welts from lice. She and Claire work in the fields and are fed boiled corn and potatoes. Every evening they look for their family coming up the road. Clemantine cries, wanting to be found. One day, thousands of refugees walk by. Claire decides she and Clemantine should go with them, even if they are going nowhere.

Clemantine goes from being a person away from home to a person without a home—a refugee. She and Claire walk with the group through the hills. Children cry for their mothers, and mothers ask if anyone’s seen their children. They all create a clearing between a farm and a river with the intention of staying there for a while. They ask the farmers for food, though sometimes they just take it. People cry, get sick, and start dying. Clemantine stops asking questions. She’s glad she doesn’t have a mirror so she can’t see how much her face has changed. Time stops moving.

One night, Clemantine wakes up and walks through the sleeping bodies to pee. When she comes back, she can’t find Claire among the bodies. She wakes a woman and asks her to help find her sister. If she doesn’t find Claire, she will be lost, and no one will know who she is. The woman sits with Clemantine all night. In the morning, Claire finds Clemantine and screams at her to never leave her side again.