Politics of Remembering and Forgetting: The Struggle over Colonial Monuments in Mali

This paper focuses on the politics of remembering and forgetting in Mali from 1960 to 2002. It argues that in contrast to the highly selective remembering promoted by Mali's first two regimes (1960–1991), the democratic state has promoted the revaluation of and reconciliation with the past, and in particular with colonization. The analysis reconstructs how Mali's political leaders have attempted to present a more heterogeneous and inclusive account of the roots of the Malian state, where modernity and tradition are seen as mutually implicated. The paper details instances of popular resistance to the state memorialization of the past in which diverse sectors of the population struggle for a greater involvement, not only in the management of their cultural patrimony, but also in national and regional politics.