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Struggles over the meaning of the past are common in postcolonial states. State cultural heritage programs build monuments to reinforce in nation building efforts—often supported by international organizations and tourist dollars. These efforts often ignore the other, often more troubling memories preserved by local communities—markers of colonial oppression, cultural genocide, and ethnic identity. Yet, as the contributors to this volume note, questions of memory, heritage, identity and conservation are interwoven at the local, ethnic, national and global level and cannot be easily disentangled. In a fascinating series of cases from West Africa, anthropologists, archaeologists and art historians show how memory and heritage play out in a variety of postcolonial contexts. Settings range from televised ritual performances in Mali to monument conservation in Djenne and slavery memorials in Ghana.

This article examines the traditional initiation of the former Senegalese Minister of Agriculture. At the age of fifty-five the Catholic Minister was initiated into the secrets of the sacred grove and thus acquired the status of adult man. The article demonstrates that Jola ethnic discourse, in which male initiation has become an important symbol, forced the Minister to enter the grove. His initiation turned him into a full member of the Jola ethnic group and qualified him as a trustworhty man capable of representing the people. In the campaign of the Socialist Party internal elections the Minister's initiation nevertheless became a major issue. The electorate did not show unswerving loyalty to ‘their’ Minister and nominated a non-initiate. The electorate suddenly changed their standards of apt political representation. The article contributes to the contemporary debate on citizenship and primary patriotism by showing that the Senegalese easily shift their position from subject to citizen, and thus empower themselves vis-à-vis elusive politicians. It also shows that politicians penetrate Jola practices of secrecy and thereby further the Jola's integration into the national public sphere. Cet article examine l'initiation traditionnelle de l'ancien Ministre sénégalais de l'Agriculture. A l'âge de cinquante cinq ans, ce Ministre catholique fut initié aux secrets du bosquet sacré et acquit à cette occasion le statut d'homme adulte. L'article démontre que le discours ethnique jola, dans lequel l'initiation des hommes est devenue un symbole important, a forcé le Ministre à intégrer le bosquet. Cette initiation a fait de lui un membre à part entière du groupe ethnique jola et lui confère le statut d'homme digne de confiance capable de représenter la population. Lors de la campagne menée à l'occasion des elections internes du Parti Socialiste, l'initiation du Ministre a néanmoins été l'objet de débats. L'electoral, loin de manifester une loyauté absolue envers “leur” Ministre, a nommé un non-initié. L'électorat a subitement change ses critères d'aptitude à la representation politique. L'article contribue au débat contemporain sur la citoyenneté et le patriotisme primaire en montrant que les Sénégalais passent facilement de la position de sujet à celle de citoyen, et disposent ainsi d'un pouvoir face aux politiciens insaisissables. Il montre également que les politiciens s'intègrent dans la pratique du secret jola et favorisent ainsi l'intégration des Jola dans le domaine public national.

AbstractEvery year on the 5th of September, the Murid brotherhood of Senegal re-members a prayer conducted by Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, founder of the brotherhood.  This prayer was said by the Saint when tried and condemned to exile by the French colonial authorities.  This article presents a history of the Prayer and an ethnography of the pilgrimage that Murid disciples undertake to commemorate this prayer as an act of resistance against the colonial regime.  It analyses the Prayer as a palimpsest performance that re-members historical relations between secular and Sufi leaders in the present, while merging civic and religious subjectivities in the citizens/disciples. Suggesting that the Prayer performs a range of different temporalities while it is itself framed by the Gregorian calendar, the article suggests that the Prayer produces a hybrid subjectivity of belonging to both Muslim brotherhood and Senegalese nation. The article demonstrates how the Senegalese nation is produced through remembrance, rather than historicism.

This article examines the intervention of one work of art in the public debate about Germany's colonial past. It suggests that Black Box/Chambre Noire by the South African artist William Kentridge has provided a forum for the calibration of archival evidence and ethical considerations on reparation, reconciliation and forgiveness. Black Box is a piece William Kentridge produced after he had been working on an interpretation of Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte. Drawing upon the history of cinema, theater, and opera, Black Box/Chambre Noire is a tightly packed play of automata that perform against a backdrop screen on which images are projected to a haunting soundtrack composed by Phillip Miller. Lasting for 22 minutes, the performance tells the history of the Herero genocide perpetrated by the German army in German South-West Africa. Recasting Mozart's Magic Flute as a shadow play in a miniature theater, Black Box/Chambre Noire reflects on the opera's associations with the Enlightenment. Illuminating its shadows cast in the colonial encounter in Africa, Black Box revisits established views on the Enlightenment as a project of human progress and perpetuates a critical inquiry launched by the members of the Frankfurt School.

[...] a jeweller situated on the tourist track of Saint Louis named his jewelry store La Signare, since signares are remembered for their elegance and for the jewelry with which they decorated themselves (Figs. 1-2). [...] jewellers promote their sales through association with this heritage. [...] in addition to spoken accounts of the past - or history - the Fanal offers a range of embodied representations of the past in the present.

Ruination has recently received much attention as a defining aspect of the materiality of modernity. Less attention is given to the processes of regeneration that occur within sites of ruination. In this article, we examine how processes of ruination and regeneration are folded into each other, by looking at the materiality of a single site, a small village in the vicinity of Dakar, Senegal. By building the University of the African Future at Sébikotane, the Senegalese president has sought to rekindle the spirit of excellence that inspired education at the École normale William Ponty in a Pan-African spirit. As part of a larger plan for urban expansion, the site of Sébikotane has inspired hope for development. Examining how the different temporalities of utopian modernism and Afro-nostalgia intersect in the ruined site, this article reflects on the ruination of African futures on a site of ever renascent utopian infrastructures. Si les ruines sont souvent décrites comme un élément clé de la modernité dans son aspect matériel, on prête moins attention aux processus de régénération qui peuvent avoir lieu sur leurs sites. Ici nous examinerons les processus de ruines et de régénération dans leurs entrelacements en nous penchant sur un site particulier : un petit village aux alentours de Dakar, au Sénégal. En construisant l'Université du Futur Africain à Sébikotane, le président sénégalais tentait de réanimer, dans une logique panafricaine, l'esprit d'excellence qui avait inspiré l’éducation fournie à l’École normale William Ponty. Dans le cadre d'un plan d'expansion urbaine plus étendu, le site de Sébikotane inspire aujourd'hui de nouveaux espoirs de développement. En examinant le croisement de diverses temporalités de modernisme utopique et d'Afro-nostalgie présentes sur ce lieu en ruines, nous porterons une réflexion sur les ruines des futurs africains, interposées entre des infrastructures utopiques toujours renaissantes.