Reshaping the Present and Constructing the Future through Remembering the Past

MERCEDES BARROS

Human Rights & Human Welfare: An International Review of Books and Other Publications

University of Denver

Lugar: Denver; Año: 2001 vol. 1 p. 7 - 12

1533 0834

During the twentieth century, numerous societies witnessed and experienced massive killings, disappearances, torture, and tremendous suffering. Extreme internal conflicts resulting from ethnic, economic or political factors, and the presence of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes have been the origin of much of this torment and violence. As a result of these experiences, societies have found themselves shattered and compelled to recover and rebuild their lost “unity.” In this sense, achieving such harmony again, reconstructing a democratic present and future, and dealing with the legacies of the past without prolonging the conflicts and divisions have become some of the urgent challenges these societies need to confront.   These post-conflict situations and the difficulties that they entail have become the focus of attention of different academic disciplinary perspectives such as history, law, sociology, literature, and anthropology, among others. As a result, we find a wide variety of writings on these issues with very divergent aims and objectives. This essay concentrates on two books, Stevan Weine’s When History is a Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia Herzegovina, written  from a biographical perspective and based on survivors’ testimonies; and Ifi Amadiume and Abdullahi An-Na’im’s The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing and Social Justice, an edited collection of essays written from an interdisciplinary approach, focusing on conflict situations in different regions and countries. This essay will first present a general account of each of the two books under review, then will go on to evaluate how these writings approach the roles that justice, truth and memory play in facilitating healing and reconciliation in societies that have experienced deep conflicts and wars.