Histories of Independence in Cote d'Ivoire: An Ethnography of the Past

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