Histories of Independence in Côte d'Ivoire

In Histories of Independence in C te d'Ivoire: an Ethnography of the Past, Konstanze N'Guessan deals with memory work in C te 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 m moire "Ivorian independence" and explores how different practices of recalling the past complement and/or contradict each other. Histories of independence in C te 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.