Commemorating and forgetting: Challenges for the new South Africa, Martin J. Murray : book review (original) (raw)
Related papers
Past, reconciliation, and forgiveness: transitional politics of memory in South Africa
The paper presents draft results of the comparative research project on transitional politics of memory and its role in construction of a new political identity. It primarily investigates the case of South Africa's transition to democracy and early consolidation of the new regime and compares it with the experience of East European Poland. The paper considers two significant aspects of state's narratives on the Past: the model of reconciliation (and the form of social reconstruction after the change) and the ideology of forgiveness (and the adapted form of dealing with the past human rights abuses). It shows how different choices of remembrance narratives and governmental strategies of narrating the Past may influence the path of democratization, and – what is even more important – the stability of a political identity. The selection of South Africa and Poland is not a coincidence – in both countries, early-democratic governments implemented future-oriented ideology and tried to weaken social divisions established during authoritarian times. However, the results of this policy seem to be quite different, what has been shown by electoral choices of South Africans and Poles during the first decade of democratic system. This difference is recognized as a starting point for a comparative study, which considers if any of eight aspects of transitional politics of memory may be recognized as a reason of this dissimilarity. The project – which is the ground for the paper – attempts to answer eight questions related to the influence of politics of memory on the political identity of society. These are issues of the role of remembrance as (1) legitimization of a new elite, (2) explanation of a political presence of former regime's officials, (3) reason for dealing with the past, (4) justification of social costs of transformation, (5) justification of new political and social standards or behaviors, (6) realization of the inter-generational agreement, (7) substantiation of a neccesity of the national unity, and (8) justification of membership in IGOs. Presented results are based on the 2-year-long qualitative study (based on new comparative research tool), and two research visits at the University of Cape Town. The project has been supporte
Debates on Memory Politics and Counter-Memory Practices in South Africa in the 1990s
Education as Change
Memory politics are often regarded as the “soft” issues contested in the aftermath of political and social upheaval. Yet critical public debates on memory, justice, impunity and reconciliation in South Africa prompted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process suggest otherwise. I offer a partial review of some of the key themes and critical debates on justice, reconciliation and memory in the 1990s, followed by a discussion of the spatial practices of the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory (DACPM) whose multilayered social pedagogy and activist repertoire of the transitional period challenged the terms of the political transition and the scope of the TRC. The debates on the TRC and the practices of the DACPM constitute but a glimpse into the significance of memory-work for now forgotten terrains of civil activist intervention, contestation and practice.
A Completion of Memory? Commemorating a decade of freedom in South Africa: 1994-2004
South Africa celebrated its tenth anniversary as a democratic nation in 2004, marking a decade of freedom since the final dismantling of apartheid rule. Commonly referred to as the 'new' South Africa, this decade has seen the country engage in a radical process of transformation, a contested search for a new national identity and new models of identification for a culturally diverse society. The 1994 inauguration of Nelson Mandela as State President heralded the official beginning of this new order, and marked the beginning of a search for new commemorative projects to represent the new national ideals of freedom, unity in diversity, and reconciliation. This search inevitably looked back to South Africa's turbulent past as a source from which to derive meaning and base the new nation's identity. Memory has been selectively invoked through new commemorations and memorial projects to create a revisionist history and reinforce a sense of a shared national identity. ...
Journal of Pan African Studies, 2008
In the last thirty years, the June 16, 1976 student uprisings have been commemorated in various ways. The commemorations have taken the form of expression of grief, loss and the will to continue pursuing the liberation project in South Africa. These processes of commemoration have over the years been characterised by tradition, change and continuity. Underpinning the characteristics of tradition, change and continuity is a feature of memory as a site of struggle for liberation and ideological contestation amongst those engaging in the struggle for liberation. This struggle on the one hand took the form of political mobilisation against apartheid colonialism and on the other hand took the form of competition for ideological hegemony among the former liberation movements. All this was within the context of the pre-1994 political order that was bent on demonising the meaning, significance and legacy of the 1976 uprisings and in some instances even attempted to erase its memory from the popular consciousness and as public history without success. The 1980s saw the memory of the uprisings being continually contested and at the same time taking new forms of tangible and intangible public re-representations. The new forms of tangible memorialisation and re-representation would later be re-imagined as tourism attractions or destinations. The latter introduced further metamorphosis of commemoration turned into monument(al) re-representation concerned with the post 1994 'national interest' to create jobs and develop local economies using the heritage of the liberation struggle side by side with the public pressures and national and public interests in symbolic reparations and social justice.
I invite you to join me on a tour of monuments and places of memory in South Africa. Based on personal experiences, observations and reflections, the paper takes you from Cape Town with its statue of Jan van Riebeeck to the Voortrekker Monument and Freedom Park in Pretoria, with a brief detour to the German Settler's Monument in East London. On the one hand, we ask whether monuments and memorials that commemorate European influence in South Africa are still relevant today. On the other hand, we take a critical look at new monuments such as Freedom Park in Pretoria, which provides new perspectives on South African heritage.
History and Memory in an African Context: A Case Study of Robben Island
Area Studies in the Global Age: Community, Place, Identity, 2016
W e all engage in memory work, but history-that is, our understandings and interpretations of it-plays a central role in framing acts of remembering. My interest in Africa's past has led me to consider the tension between history and memory on the African continent and in the Diaspora. History and memory both matter for identities and communities. Many scholars have come to view history as a form of social memory, rather than an unbiased narrative or story. 1 They acknowledge that collective memory, in turn, is a form of history, for how people remember helps us to make sense of our past, ground us in the present, and prepare us for the future. 2 Indeed, the ways in which we remember-and forget-shape and shift our interpretations of history, of change over time, of disruption and of continuity. 3 History is representation, and cultural memories are deployed to benefit certain groups over others. "Traditions" turn into honored cultural institutions. The state shapes the identity of the national community by producing historical narratives. Yet as the identity of the South African nation has changed so dramatically since the 1990s, so has the notion of community. Groups once fairly rigid under the segregated society of South African apartheid now cross boundaries and challenge old orders. Not everything has changed, however, as history and memory demonstrate in this African context. National myths emerge from a blend of history and memory, fact and fiction. These myths are often quite inauthentic, but they become authentic and highly symbolic, often appearing to be "natural. " The state promotes a collective memory and attempts to control this very public memory despite its ambiguous nature. 4 Yet often there are competing narratives that manage to slowly erode national myths over the long term or swiftly override them in a flash during political and economic transitions. Moments of transformation, such as the heady time surrounding South Africa's attainment of full independence in 1994, provide evidence with which to examine how disclosure and silence (public and private) work to shape social representations of history.
THE POLITICS OF COMMEMORATION IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF LILIESLEAF MUSEUM
Journal of South African Cultural History, 2019
This paper will examine the manner in which Liliesleaf Museum in Rivonia, Johannesburg commemorates the armed struggle. It will situate the Museum within the ambit of South Africa’s heritage sector and context of post-apartheid history. It is the author’s argument that the Museum’s trustees have structured the site in such a way that it does not present a singular narrative but makes space for multiple voices to be heard by visitors. While it falls short of being a game changer in the country’s commemorative practices, it does provide pointers to a non-prescriptive mode of remembrance that allows for alternative readings of the struggle narrative. Yet the African National Congress still seems intent on controlling the narrative even though the country’s commemorative culture has become more contested.