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- Convenors:
-
Livio Sansone
(Federal University of Bahia)
Cláudio Furtado (Federal University of Bahia)
Joel Tembe (Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique/Universidade Eduardo Mondlane)
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- Chair:
-
Ciraj Rassool
(University of the Western Cape)
- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- KH118
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The years around independence were years of culture wars. Over fifty years have passed since - forty in the case of the former Portuguese colonies - and new cultural wars are waged on which part of the past, and which biographies, locations and archives can be "rediscovered" and for which purposes.
Long Abstract:
The years around independence, the magic moment that spanned from 1958 to 1975, were years of culture wars waged on that which had to be preserved and which aspects, locations or moments, to the contrary, had to be rejected in the narratives about the precolonial and colonial history of the newly independent country. Oral history (griots) was a way to counterbalance historical accounts based on written sources, some places became icons of a past to be revered and dealt with as being constitutive of the new country (Gorée, the Ghanaian slave forts), archeology could show to the outer world the greatness of the African past, and popular culture - especially music - was called upon to redefine the narrative of the nation. A number of decades have passed since and new cultural wars are waged. Now the key question seems to be which part of the past, and which biographies, locations and archives can be "rediscovered" and even turned into national heritage to assist in the development of narratives and cultural practices that could help the country to move successfully into the future. This panel deals with:
Biographies of national leaders or heroes; The politics and practice of museums and archives;
The (un)making of (national) monuments, heritage sites, new national heroes (and villains) forgetting and forgiving; The process of patrimonialization of intangible culture - turning popular culture into heritage;
National history projects; The practice and politics of archeology - what politicians and the government would like the archeologist to be doing (and finding).
Accepted papers:
Session 1Maria-Benedita Basto (Université Paris Sorbonne Paris 4)
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents a questioning on what seems simultaneously like a lack of interest on Amicar Cabral and an overemphasis on him in Cape Verde. What does a case of such “anti- or over-patrimonialization” signify? Possible explanations deal with the complexity of identities and associated points of view.
Paper long abstract:
Several biographies have been published on Amilcar Cabral in recent years, but none by Cape-Verdeans. Similarly, if one wishes to work on Cabral one has to visit the Mario Soares Foundation in Lisbon rather than in the Cape Verdean national archives which have no holdings on Cabral. At the same time Cabral is at the heart of a celebration of African identity among many Cape-Verdean intellectuals. This situation leads me to posit the hypothesis that we have here a case of simultaneous "anti- or over-patrimonialization"of Cabral. My main line of explanation will deal with the complexity of identities dealing with Cabral's heritage. At stake is, on the one hand, the tension between Cape-Verde and Guinée Bissau, on the other hand diverging perspectives or "culture wars" which are also "memory wars" and even "utopia wars" among islands within the Cape-Verdian archipel: Santiago vs. São Vicente and Praia versus Mindelo.
Rony Emmenegger (University of Zurich)
Paper short abstract:
The building of the post-colonial city is ultimately related with the re-making of the past. Based on ethnographic research, this paper presents Jigjiga’s memorial landscape in the making and highlights the significance of the material consolidation of national history in a violent frontier.
Paper long abstract:
The regime change in Ethiopia in 1991 marked a radical departure from the oppressive Derg regime and promised the cultural liberation of societies in the country's peripheries. For Somalis inhabiting the eastern Ethiopian lowlands, in particular, the creation of an ethnic federal system under the successive regime opened space for the search for Somali origin and identity within Ethiopia, and for an alternative writing of histories. Somali liberation, however, did not result in the consolidation of an academic field in a "search for counter-histories" that allowed the demythologization of Ethiopian historiography and its totalizing effects for the peripheral lowlands. In contrast, it mobilized memorial politics in and around material constructions in the city of Jigjiga, the capital of the newly created Ethiopian Somali region. This paper approaches Jigjiga as a post-colonial city whose material formation is ultimately related to the re-making of the past. It demonstrates how re-writing of national history re-configured the city's memorial landscape along its infrastructural formation with twofold consequences. First, memorial politics fetishized material constructions, animating buildings and monuments and allowing dead political leaders to resurrect as embodiments of the state and its foundational violence. Second, it involved a complex interplay between oblivion and memory - destruction and construction - through which the myth of the state was reconfigured in order to persist under ethnic federal rule in Ethiopia. Based on ethnographic research, this paper highlights the significance of the material consolidation of national history in the context of violent struggles in the Ethiopian Somali frontier.
Mareike Späth (Goethe-University Frankfurt)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I retrace different approaches of dealing with the memory of the anti-colonial war in Madagascar. By discussing changing commemorative practices I ask when, how, and by whom official history is made, and discuss post-independence politics and practices of historiography.
Paper long abstract:
When the first president of the post-colonial state in Madagascar proclaimed independence from France in 1960, this act was the result of political negotiations and the starting point of a close bilateral relationship on more or less equal terms between former colonizers and colonized. This continuation on friendly terms necessitated the glorification of shared history and the suppressing of narratives of militant anti-colonial movements and colonial violence. It was not until ten years into independence that the memory of the anti-colonial uprising in 1947 officially became a lieu de mémoire in the Malagasy commemorative landscape. The second post-colonial government firmly built its anti-French politics on introducing the heroic independence movement and the brave freedom fighters into the collective national memory and establishing anti-colonialism as national heritage. Ever since the question on how to deal with the traumatic and triumphant shades of anti-colonial resistance in official commemoration has troubled politicians, historians and activists in Madagascar and France alike.
In this paper I retrace different approaches of dealing with the memory of the anti-colonial war and its heroes and victims in Madagascar. By discussing changing commemorative practices like national days, monumentisation and museumisation between 1947 and 2010 I ask when, how, and by whom official history is made, and discuss politics and practices of official and unofficial historiography of colonialism and independence.
Suzana Sousa (University of the Western Cape)
Paper short abstract:
A new dynamic arts field is growing and challenging the constraints of national identity in Angola. In a polarized art world intercepted by politics, the work of Vitex and Kiluanji Kia Henda as well as UNAP and 'Fucking Globo' project allow us an insight into present Angolan art scene.
Paper long abstract:
The current political discourse in Angola concerning culture maintains a focus on the strengthening of Angolan culture. The loss of cultural values is a common motto, used by politicians. In Agostinho Neto's first speech proclaiming independence two important layers of this debate are mentioned. Firstly, the social class and differences among social groups; and secondly, the cultural differences among the Angolan territory. It also mentions, the idea of dependency towards foreign cultures, namely colonial culture. More than 40 years past independence, the national culture discourse sounds emptied and translates into a moralizing discourse while the marks of the cultural struggle are to be seen from the street, from the erasure of colonial statues and street names to the adopted notions of art. Actually, the struggle seems to be particularly alive in the cultural field where structures from the socialist moment such as the UNAP-National Union of Visual Artists try to keep themselves relevant and manage to do so with the support of the state and the party in power. At the same time, a new dynamic arts field is growing and challenging the constraints of national identity and the limits of Angolan art. In a polarized art world intercepted by the politics of an Angolan identity constructed through and in a specific historical moment, looking to the work of Vitex and Kiluanji Kia Henda as well as UNAP and the 'Fucking Globo' project will give us some data on the present Angolan art scene.