Beyond Monuments: The politics and poetics of memory in post-war northern Uganda The politics and poetics of memory in post-war northern Uganda

Abstract

Beyond Monuments: The politics and poetics of memory in post-war northern Uganda explores themes of war and peace, displacement and return, and remembering and forgetting, depicted as experiences of survivors of mass violence in the northern Uganda civil wars between 1987 and 2006. Presented as dichotomies marking key transitional moments negotiated by NGOs, governments, and post-war communities in northern Uganda, the analysis of these themes emphasises how ordinary survivors of war make claims – through oral performances, memoirs, reminiscences, and place and personal names – that foreground memories threatened with amnesia, resulting from state and NGO driven commemorations.

Beyond Monuments shows the intersection between literature and material arts and, as a result, stylistically it shifts focus from conventional literature, defined in the genre of novels, plays, essays and short stories, to include non-inscribed or thinly inscribed texts such as cenotaphs, sculptures, statues, and other concrete objects used in the making of memory. Beyond Monuments – which shapes debates in the subjects of transitional justice, conflict management, resilience, recovery, and peace – will find a wide audience, ranging from teachers of literature and scholars of the fine arts to memory anthropologists, cultural historians, humanitarian agencies, government officials, social workers, and readers interested in the intellectual histories of neglected societies.