The Politics of Historical Memory and Commemoration in Africa

Description

Essays in Memory of Jan-Georg Deutsch The volume observes some of the principles that drove Prof. Jan-Georg Deutsch's research: highlighting present-day politics for the way they shape historical remembrance, learning from people on the ground through fieldwork and oral history, and bringing various parts of the African continent into discussion with one another. From Cape Town to Charlottesville, many societies are grappling with historical consciousness and the production of public memory. In particular, how and why societies remember and forget, what should serve as symbols of collective memory, and whether there exists space for multiple memory cultures are questions being vigorously debated once again. These discussions present particular challenges not only to official memory bound to ideological constructions of nationhood but also to the teaching of history and its links to social justice movements. The volume re-centres Africa and African history in memory studies, with each chapter drawing parallels to comparable cases in Africa and the world. An underlying assumption is that what can be learned from the politics of historical memory in Africa will have relevance for contemporary politics globally and for understanding how memories can be mobilised for political ends. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Public Memorialisation and the Politics of Historical Memory in Africa I Struggles with Heritage & Historicity Oral history, Closed Settings and the Formation of Narratives: A South African Example A “Quest for Relevance”: The Memory Politics of UNESCO’s General History of Africa II Political Commemoration & Memory Remembering Mzee: The Making and Re-making of “Kenyatta Day,” 1958–2010 Southern Somalia’s “Glorious Days Are Our Nightmare”: The Performance of Political Memory and Contestations of Commemoration in Northern Somalia (Somaliland) III Nostalgia – between Social Connection & Social Ordering The Memory Process in the Commemorations of the Dead in West African Newspapers Remembrance of Drinks Past: Wine and Absinthe in Nineteenth-century French Algeria Epilogue The Historian as Memory Practitioner Figures List of Contributors Index of names Index of places