Cafe Society
Yseult P. Mukantabana writer for Maxwell Social and Cafe Society

Author

Yseult P. Mukantabana

Yseult Polfliet Mukantabana is a culture critic, author, screenwriter, and public speaker exploring identity, belonging, and social dynamics. She is co-author of Real Friends Talk About Race, a powerful book about uncomfortable but necessary conversations on race and identity.


Her pieces cover her life and how her multiple identities shaped her journey of self-acceptance. She sits on the board of POWarts and is an expert research fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute. On her journey in expanding her career in writing she wrote a piece for Cafe Society on growing up between continents and culture.

Articles

POLITICS

Rwanda, je t’aime

Writer and filmmaker Yseult P. Mukantabana grew up between continents and cultures—Rwandan, Belgian, Jewish, queer. In her own words, she reflects on exile, reconciliation, and how a country once defined by tragedy quietly became one of the world’s most remarkable experiments in rebuilding.

By Yseult P. Mukantabana | April 15 2026

For many people outside Africa, Rwanda remains frozen in 1994 when the country's genocide left nearly a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu dead. The Rwanda that exists today is something else entirely; it is often described as the “Rwandan Miracle.” Over the past three decades, as reconciliation has progressed, GDP has grown rapidly, Kigali is increasingly positioned as a center of technology and investment...

Read more
Yseult P. Mukantabana | Cafe Society