Histories of Independence in Cte d’Ivoire: An Ethnography of the Past

The author deals with memory work in Cte d’Ivoire and bridges an ethnographic approach with the insights of newer theoretical approaches in historiography. Adopting a long-term perspective from the late 1950s to the present, she attempts to disentangle the condensation of meanings of the lieu de mmoire ‘Ivorian independence’ and explores how different practices of recalling the past complement and/or contradict each other. Histories of independence in Cte d’Ivoire looks at national-day celebrations, academic historiography, oral tradition and memory politics in order to understand how (political) actors mobilize the past in order to produce pleasant presents and futures.