Public Memorialisation and the Politics of Historical Memory in Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID20071460
AuthorsMichelle M Sikes, Cassandra Mark-Thiesen (0000-0003-4099-3273), Moritz A Mihatsch (0000-0003-0013-9873)
Year2021
Pages1-20
Publication date2021-12-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenuePolitics of Historical Memory and Commemoration in Africa (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherDe Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/9783110655315-002
OpenAlexW4200402223
ISBN9783110655315
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited13

In 2020,aglobal wave of anti-racism movementsc ontributed to widespread reconsideration of previouslyhonoured people. From Bristol'sslave trader Edward Colston, to confederate generals across the American South, to King Leopold II of Belgium, statues now seen as symbols of white supremacyh avef allen. Campaigns in Africa challenged state-endorsed memorialisations, thus contributing to the recent groundswell of alternative interpretations of the past.Int he Ethiopian town of Harar,O romo groups toppledamonument to Haile Selassie'sf ather,R as Makonnen, seeing bothf ather and son as imperialist oppressors. In Cape Town,astatue of whites upremacist Cecil Rhodes at RhodesM emorial on the slopes of Table Mountain was decapitated. In 2015,protests over another statue of Rhodes located at the University of Cape Town (UCT)channelled memories of past injustices into widespread mobilisation for change, am ovement known as #RhodesMustFall (RMF)

Aesthetics · Art · Historical memory · Humanities · Political science · Politics · Politics of memory · African history and culture studies · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law

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