Historical Memory in Africa: Dealing With the Past, Reaching for the Future in an Intercultural Context

The ambiguous nature of historical memory during times of social upheaval and transformation is explored by scholars of the humanities and social sciences. The study pivots on a number of cases in African countries, but the contributors are from the West and Asia as well as Africa, and a major concern is investigating how the cases in Africa differ, and how they parallel, from those elsewhere. The African perspectives include linking past and present through oral memory, historical memory and the representation of new nations, the centenary commemoration of the South African war of 1899-1902, and the politics of memory in the new South Africa. Comparative perspectives are from Germany, India, and East Asia. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Bernard Lategan is the founding Director of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. He studied classical languages, linguistics, literary theory, and theology at universities in South Africa, Europe and North America and specializes in hermeneutics, values studies and social transformation.