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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Nervous confessions: military memoirs and national reconciliation in Mali |
Author: | Sow, Alioune |
Year: | 2010 |
Periodical: | Cahiers d'études africaines |
Volume: | 50 |
Issue: | 197 |
Pages: | 69-93 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Mali |
Subjects: | autobiography memory democratization military regimes political conditions conflict resolution |
About persons: | Assimi Souleymane Dembélé Soungalo Samaké |
Abstract: | By focusing on two memoirs recently published by former officers of the 1968-1991 Malian military regime, Assimi Souleymane Dembélé's 'Transferts définitifs' (2003) and Soungalo Samaké's 'Ma vie de soldat' (2007), this essay examines a new autobiographical practice, which aims to uncover some of the most troubling episodes of Malian history and raise questions about individual complicity, collective responsibility and amnesty. The article seeks to demonstrate how these narratives engage with the culture of memory dominating Malian sociopolitical life since the 1991 democratization, and complement public forms and institutionalized initiatives of remembering and examining of the past. By reflecting on the tremendous transformations brought about by the mass demonstrations of 1991, these narratives contribute in an unexpected manner to the discourse of national reconciliation in contemporary Mali. Bibliogr., notes, ref, sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |