"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 memorie ... s 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." (Publisher description) more

"This article explored the particular version of ‘national culture’ that emerged in Mali’s post-independent history at the interface of a governmental politics of culture and communication, media technologies, and people’s media engagement. I argued that the dialectical production of ‘the ... past’ as a source of cultural identity and nationalist pride was gradually transformed under the subsequent regimes of postcolonial Mali. Central parameters of claiming and validating one’s past have changed, along with a shift in significance (and employment) of ‘the past’. In previous decades, ‘remembering the past’ formed part of a hegemonic quest for a national heritage and an all-encompassing collective identity that tended to silence internal difference. This representation of national culture contrasts with more recent governmental attempts to create a sense of national unity not by reference to a common past but by acknowledging cultural diversity and celebrating the nation state’s capacity to ease out the tensions arising from internal difference. What conclusions can we draw from the shift from mass-mediated celebrations of oral traditions identified with practices of remembering an ‘authentic’ past to the staging of‘cultural diversity’ on state television? In what sense is this shift indicative of how individuals and groups need to frame and pursue their citizenship entitlements under current political conditions shaped by the effects of multiparty ‘democracy’?" (Conclusion, page 206) more