Identities in Transition

The Enkidu Summer Conference 2007

June 1 - 5, 2007

Mexico City

in:

Retribution Demanded By The Past (focus on slavery)

Yoseph Mobae

University of Asmara

Outreach and Training Department, National Museum of Eritrea

Eritrea

The main focus of this paper will be on the repression of memories, particularly of slavery in which the repressive apartheid system of South Africa had a bigger role to play and something that encouraged slave descendants themselves to let it happen – choosing to forget than remember as it depressed and put them where they did not want to be in society.  

The paper will further deal with the problem of identity i.e. of slave descendants – can we all claim descendancy when need be and forget as soon as that need is fulfilled? Parallel to this the paper will examine about the emancipation of slaves and the commemoration and celebration of emancipation day.

The paper will further look at the question of taking responsibility for the past coming to terms with and thereby letting go without the past haunting us seeking retribution as shown in the case of Beloved. The moral judgment that always comes back to us, no matter what our reasons are for our actions, to take responsibility for our ill actions of the time. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the Republic of South Africa – was it a process of sacrificing the truth (their past) at the alter of reconciliation (forgiving and forgetting? After telling their stories did the perpetrators feel morally obliged to take moral responsibility for their actions as in the case of the slave owners who gave slaves training on their way to freedom? How do professionals treat the past and those who endured it? Do we dismiss its victims/descendants as having acted irresponsibility and reduce their testimonies of how they knew it to be stories that our theories prove right or do we give them a voice to say how they felt without quoting parts of stories that agree with us as in the case of the South African TRC report.

The paper will further look at the issue of commemorating their heartaches and celebrating their joys. When, what, how and who should commemorate the horror of the former deed of slavery and celebrate its abolishing.