This panel investigates the public memory landscapes within various African/ African diasporic communities and how debates pertaining to the coloniality, and decolonising of memory take shape. Paper one considers the study of collective biography as a methodology to disrupt patriarchal and colonial structures still present in contemporary South Africa. Paper two offers an exploration of the Indian Ocean as a site of inextricably entwined historical and ecological memory, where the bodies of enslaved ancestors and undocumented migrants meet bleached coral and poisoned fish in oil-infested waters. Paper three examines indigenous resistance to British imperial force, showcased through the internal politics in Ijebu and Lagos utilising a historiographical analysis and memory presented in the selected chronicles. Paper Four provides an affective approach responding to print collecting from the apartheid era straddling individual memorial landscapes and complex public allegiances.

Annette Wentworth and Samantha van Schalkwyk

Using collective biographies of women's lived experience to disrupt patriarchy and decolonize memory in South Africa. 

In this paper we explore the use of collective biography as a methodology to disrupt patriarchal and colonial structures still present in contemporary South Africa. Dr. van Schalkwyk will draw from her decades-long experience working in both gender-based research and collective biography, illustrated in her book: Narrative landscapes of female sexuality in Africa; Collective stories of trauma and transition (2018). This book illustrates her pioneering use of collective biography based on oral testimony and storytelling in South Africa. Annette Wentworth will explore the ways in which women have witnessed to their lived experience of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in community-based arts programmes, as well as introduce her research in rural communities using the collective biographic methodology.

Ilupeju Taariqa-R. Adepeju

Tragic Resignation and the Advent of British Colonialism in Lagos and Ijebu 1851-1892

Lagos and Ijebu are two Yoruba subethnic located in the western region of Nigeria. The British colonised Nigeria and Lagos became a British colony in 1861. Colonialism commenced in Lagos before Ijebu, so this is not a parallel history. Although the British activities in Lagos affected the politics in Ijebu, however, they were distinct events. The colonial politics of these two Yoruba nations were reactions to the British colonial policies. Tragic resignation in the politics of memory is shown when narrators run out of excuses to explain away their characters failures or defeat. The tragic resignation of memory describes how indigenous authors portray the British bombardment of Lagos. The various narratives acknowledged that the political actors were powerless in the face of the British superior military weapons and war strategy. In Ijebu, tragic resignation is portrayed in the Ijebu defeat at the Magbon War in 1892. This study examines indigenous resistance to British imperial force. It also showcases the internal politics in Ijebu and Lagos. The aim of the study is a historiographical analysis using memory presented in the selected chronicles. The themes are politics of memory, history and time. The scope of the study explores Lagos and Ijebu from 1851-1892. The research adopts Collective memory to explain the nexus between memory and identity. The theory of historical truth explains the authenticity of the information given.

Nicola Cloete

Returning to Krotoa- re-figuring the memory landscape

In this paper I read the historic figure of Krotoa Eva as emblematic of the decolonisation discussion in the South African memory landscape. The Afrikaans language fiction film Krotoa (2017) and the documentary as part of the Hidden Histories series, Krotoa (2013) are both produced by Penguin Films in South Africa. Through these two representational examples I consider the renewed interest in this important historical figure by different identity groups in South Africa and suggest that her increasing inclusion in the memory landscape reveals a shift in the place women play in decolonial memory projects. I draw on Meg Samuelson's Remembering the Nation, Dismembering Women? (2008) to locate Krotoa-Eva in the debate of South Africa's transition to a democratic nation and Sabelo J Ndlovu Gatsheni's Decoloniality as the Future of Africa (2105) to anchor the discussion.