Journal of Material Culture current issue

Postconflict Heritage

De Jong, F., Rowlands, M. — 2008-06-20

Civilization, Violence and Heritage Healing in Liberia

Rowlands, M. — 2008-06-20

The restoration of public spaces and monuments in post-conflict situations is often associated with negotiation of trauma and reconciliation. The focus of this article is on the restoration of the national museum as a focus for the restoration of pre-civil war order in Liberia. By concentrating on the restoration of commemorative and public ceremonial spaces `as they were', `forgetting' allows the re-emergence of a visual culture that sustains the continuity of an idea of `civilization'.

Heritage as Therapy: Set Pieces from the New South Africa

Meskell, L., Scheermeyer, C. — 2008-06-20

Since the democratic dispensation in South Africa, heritage as a category has been necessarily framed by the specter of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, its place in wider society, the general underpinnings of amnesty, forgiveness and the desire to move forward as a nation. Human rights activism, truth commissions, and juridical proceedings are powerful mechanisms for dealing with historical trauma. More materially, South African cultural productions, including objects, memorials, museums, heritage sites and public spaces of commemoration provide another therapeutic arena. After 13 years of democracy, the material spaces of daily life provide a vantage point to examine how practices of remembering and forgetting pervade the public sphere and the world of things, and how traumatic embrace is configured to include (and exclude) certain constituencies as our case studies demonstrate. Spectacles of trauma and memory in the new South Africa are similarly shot through with other interventions including the pressures of state politics, development tactics and international tourism. Perhaps like never before, this `state in search of a nation', has been under an international spotlight and has been held up as a beacon for other oppressive contexts and post-conflict states.

From `General Field Marshal' To `Miss Genocide': The Reworking of Traumatic Experiences among Herero-Speaking Namibians

Forster, L. — 2008-06-20

The colonial war of 1904—8 in Namibia still features prominently in contemporary Namibian memory culture. Above all, Herero-speaking Namibians have created various practices by which the war is commemorated annually. Seminal are commemorative rituals held in different areas of Namibia and organized by a ritual and social network established in the aftermath of the war. These commemorations provide a stage for the continuous reworking of the memory of defeat and flight, of dispersal, displacement and genocide, but also of survival and reorganization. The employment of uniforms in the commemorative practices of Herero-speaking Namibians is but one example for the way such memory work is also embodied in material culture. Historic as well as more recent developments of Herero memory culture are scrutinized in an appraisal of different images and representations of the past.

Recycling Recognition: The Monument as Objet Trouve of the Postcolony

De Jong, F. — 2008-06-20

This article examines the recycling of a colonial memorial to African veterans in Dakar, Senegal. This act of appropriation by the Senegalese government radically transformed the significance of the memorial and reconfigured the city's memoryscape. Whilst the Senegalese government thus reclaimed colonial history as constitutive for the postcolony, it simultaneously underwrote a postcolonial claim for recognition. The article examines this case as indicative for a wider trend to claims for recognition for which recyclia seem to lend themselves par excellence. As objects of mimetic appropriation, colonial memorials can be seen as the objets trouvés of the postcolony.

Arrested Heritage: The Politics of Inscription into the UNESCO World Heritage List: The Case of Agadez in Niger

Scholze, M. — 2008-06-20

The process of nominating a certain site or tradition as a world heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) can be seen as a dialectic of the local and the global. A localized monument, building, town, landscape or cultural tradition becomes globalized through the inclusion into the list of world heritage. Thus, it acquires a new status as being of `outstanding universal value'. The aim of this global cultural policy as formulated by UNESCO is to enhance the pride of the local population in their own culture, foster efforts to its preservation as well as to enrich the whole of humanity in creating a cultural memory on a worldwide scale.

Confronting the Past?: Negotiating a Heritage of Conflict in Sierra Leone

Basu, P. — 2008-06-20

Cultural heritage is not a priority in Sierra Leone. As one of the poorest countries in the world and one only gradually recovering from civil war, there are more immediate concerns. Despite long-term neglect, this article considers whether there is, however, a role for Sierra Leone's cultural heritage in post-conflict recovery. It examines two arenas for the production of Sierra Leone's national past: its list of proclaimed national monuments notionally protected by a Monuments and Relics Commission, and the report of its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Whilst the rhetoric of the TRC calls Sierra Leoneans to confront their past, history is rewritten in its report and a mythic past of `peaceful co-existence' posited. To confront Sierra Leone's `indigenous' cultural heritage is, however, to confront a long history of conflict. The article asks whether it is not better to acknowledge this difficult past rather than deny it.