Scholastique Mukasonga was born in south-western Rwanda on the banks of the Rukarara river; its source is considered to be the furthest source of the Nile. In 1959, the first pogroms against the Tutsis broke out. In 1960, her family was deported, along with many other Tutsis, to Nyamata in Bugesera, a particularly inhospitable bush region. She managed to survive despite constant persecution and several massacres. In spite of the quota of only 10% Tutsis in secondary schools, she attended Lycée Notre-Dame de Cîteaux and a college for social workers in Butare. In 1973, Tutsi students were expelled from schools and civil servants were removed from their posts. She went into exile in Burundi to escape death. She completed her studies as a social worker in Burundi and then worked for UNICEF. She arrived in France in 1992 and passed the competitive examination to become a social worker, since her Burundian qualification was not recognised by the French government. From 1996 to 1997, she worked as a social worker for students at the University of Caen. Since 1998, she has worked as a judicial representative for the Departmental Union of Family Associations of Calvados. 

In 1994, 37 members of her family were murdered during the Tutsi genocide. It took her ten years to find the strength to return to Rwanda (2004). It was after this trip that she felt able to write her first book, an autobiography entitled Inyenzi ou les Cafards. The American translation of her book by Jordan Stump, Cockroaches, was nominated for the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Autobiographical Prose. La Femme aux pieds nus was published in 2008 and was awarded the Prix Seligmann by the Chancellery of the Universities of Paris against racism and intolerance. A collection of short stories, L’Iguifou, followed in 2010 and was awarded the Prix Paul Bourdarie 2011 by the French Academy of Overseas Sciences and the Prix Renaissance de la Nouvelle. Her novel Notre-Dame du Nil won the Prix Ahmadou Kourouma in Geneva, the Prix Océan France Ô and the Prix Renaudot in 2012. The American translation, Our Lady of the Nile, was chosen as one of the ten best novels for the Dublin Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Financial Times’ Emerging Voices Award. In 2014, a new collection of short stories entitled Ce que murmurent les collines was published and was awarded the Prix de la Société des Gens de Lettres in 2015. Her novel Coeur Tambour was published in January 2016 as part of Éditions Gallimard’s Collection Blanche. In March 2018, she published an autobiographical work, Un si beau diplôme. In March 2020, a new novel entitled Kibogo est monté au ciel was published, again as part of Éditions Gallimard’s Collection Blanche.

 She was given the French Judaism Foundation’s Prix Bernheim in 2015 for her work.

In June 2017, she received the French-speaking Ambassadors’ Prize in Copenhagen.

In 2019, Cockroaches was chosen by the New York Times as one of the 50 best autobiographical stories of the last 50 years.

The Barefoot Woman was one of the five finalists for the National Book Award.

Scholastique Mukasonga was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. 

The film Our Lady of the Nile, which was directed by Atiq Rahimi, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and received the award for Best Actress for the group of young girls at the Vue d’Afrique Festival and the Crystal Bear at Berlin International Film Festival.