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The Value of Memory in Testimonies on African Civil Wars: Kidder’s and Beah’s Problematic Journey to the West

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Memory as Colonial Capital

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies ((PMMS))

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Abstract

In Tracy Kidder’s Strength in What Remains and Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, traumatic memories of the civil wars in Burundi and Sierra Leone are reshaped into a discourse of hope that fits perfectly a narrative of redemption. Because the memories in these accounts are processed through the Western book market, the narrators’ need to mourn or memorialize their traumatic pasts are overwritten due to readers’ expectations of triumphal stories of survival and success. This chapter demonstrates that this very recent evidence of the pervasive nature of colonial memory makes the topic of memory as political discourse and cultural capital not only an important lens through which to view the past, but an urgent problem of the present as well.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, USA

    Éloïse Brezault

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  1. Éloïse Brezault
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Correspondence to Éloïse Brezault .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pace University, New York, New York, USA

    Erica L. Johnson

  2. St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, USA

    Éloïse Brezault

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Brezault, É. (2017). The Value of Memory in Testimonies on African Civil Wars: Kidder’s and Beah’s Problematic Journey to the West. In: Johnson, E., Brezault, É. (eds) Memory as Colonial Capital. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50577-0_2

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