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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Politics of Remembering and Forgetting: The Struggle over Colonial Monuments in Mali |
Author: | De Jorio, Rosa |
Year: | 2006 |
Periodical: | Africa Today |
Volume: | 52 |
Issue: | 4 |
Period: | Summer |
Pages: | 79-106 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Mali |
Subjects: | colonial history memory politics cultural policy colonialism History and Exploration Politics and Government |
External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/v052/52.4de_jorio02.pdf |
Abstract: | This paper focuses on the politics of remembering and forgetting in Mali from 1960 to 2002. It argues that in contrast to the highly selective remembering promoted by Mali's first two regimes (1960-1991), the democratic State has promoted the revaluation of and reconciliation with the past, and in particular with colonization. The analysis reconstructs how Mali's political leaders have attempted to present a more heteregeneous and inclusive account of the roots of the Malian State, where modernity and tradition are seen as mutually implicated. The paper details instances of popular resistance to the State memorialization of the past, notably the reactions of students, intellectuals and officials in Ségou, who participated in or witnessed events involving the transfer of the statue of Colonel Louis Archinard from Ségou to Bamako in 2000. The paper specifies the composition and aspirations of the heterogeneous opposition to Archinard's departure from Ségou. The narratives disclose a variety of views on crucial issues, such as State power and its perceived arbitrariness, the contradictions of Malian democracy, and the emergence of bottom-up intitiatives for cultural production. Bibliogr., notes, ref. sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |