Bamako, Mali: Monuments and Modernity in the Urban Imagination

Arnoldi, Mary Jo

doi:10.2979/aft.2007.54.2.2

Cited by 28 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In neighbouring Zimbabwe, independence was followed by the removal of the statues of colonial authorities such as Cecil John Rhodes, Alfred Beit and many others, since they were seen as offensive to Africans (Samwanda, 2013). Similar observations have been made about colonial statues and monuments in West Africa, most notably, in Mali (Arnoldi, 1999, 2003, 2007). Given this trend, South Africa with a similar colonial history cannot be an exception.…”

Section: The Changing Nature Of Statues and Monuments In Tshwanesupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Preservation of the memories of heroes and heroines through statues and monuments was and still is not unique to South Africa and Pretoria. Statues and monuments of this nature were common across Africa during the colonial and apartheid era (Arnoldi, 1999(Arnoldi, , 2003(Arnoldi, , 2007Coombes, 2003;Larsen, 2013). As Larsen has noted in the case of Kenya, they were used as cultural tools in the project of colonialism until the achievement of independence in the 1960s (Larsen, 2013).…”

Section: Colonial and Apartheid Statues And Monuments In Pretoria (Tsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The changing nature of statues and monuments in Tshwane (Pretoria) South Africa

Fubah

2018

Ethnography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the changing nature of statues and monuments in post-apartheid South Africa with special focus on newly constructed statues and monuments at the Groenkloof Nature Reserve (GNR) in Tshwane. The paper highlights the extraordinary fascination of the African National Congress (ANC) government with statues and monuments in honour of anti-colonial and anti-apartheid icons. It demonstrates that by embarking on the construction of statues and monuments in honour of struggle icons, these icons have become the embodiment of a new iconography for South Africa. More importantly, the paper will demonstrate how the newly constructed statues, though still in line with the pre-1994 iconography, are also disruptive of the country’s cultural landscape, much to the advantage of the government.

show abstract

Section: The Changing Nature Of Statues and Monuments In Tshwanesupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Colonial and Apartheid Statues And Monuments In Pretoria (Tsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing nature of statues and monuments in Tshwane (Pretoria) South Africa

Fubah

2018

Ethnography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In a time of ‘accountability’ (Lessa & Payne 2012), the decision not to scrutinise the military past allegedly aimed to secure national reconciliation and shield the democratic transition process from the tensions that such examination could produce. Instead, the state made ‘national reconciliation’ (De Jorio 2006; Arnoldi 2007) the central tenet of the transitional policies (Konaté 2006: 76), raising questions about what could be reasonably expected from such state trials in the Malian context (De Jorio 2016). By 2010, the strategy of exemption that the authorities opted for had shown its limitations.…”

Section: Contextualising the Malian Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Military parade in Mali: understanding Malian politics through spectacle

Sow

2021

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This essay argues that the Independence Day's military parade in Mali has become a strategic site to negotiate fragile military and civil relations, and a repository to promote social change through the military experience. Drawing on field observations of the parade of the 50th anniversary of Independence in Bamako and the literature on political transitions, this essay demonstrates that military parades constitute meaningful sites for alternative engagements with democratic transitions. It examines the tactics and mechanisms deployed by the Malian national army to negotiate past human rights violations and authoritarian practices, as well as to seek the army's rehabilitation following the collapse of the military regime. By analysing military parades as a form and practice consolidating the ‘social contract’ between the army and the public after the political transition, this article contributes to the scholarship on transition and the study of military parades within the African continent.

show abstract

“…Post-independence African regimes have sought to capitalize on the lasting political efficacy of erecting new memorials commemorating precolonial leaders, nationalist heroes and allegorical figures. But, as scholars have shown, these honorary monuments often efface the regional, political and ethnic differences that threaten to rupture the notion of a homogeneous, unified nation state (Arnoldi 2003; 2007; Becker 2011; Chirambo 2010). In Madagascar, state-sponsored actors have also transformed certain anti-colonial activists and events into national heroes, positioned to stand as icons of national identity (Tronchon 1986).…”

Section: Detritus and Deletions: Imaginings Of Post-independence Mahamentioning

confidence: 99%

Neglect as effacement: the multiple lives of the Jardin Ralaimongo, Mahajanga, Madagascar

Rijke-Epstein¹

2018

Africa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

By considering the lifespan of a garden, this article investigates the myriad spatial practices of forgetting and remembering the colonial and postcolonial pasts that people apply to their urban surroundings in Mahajanga, Madagascar. In the heart of an ancient residential and commercial neighbourhood in this multi-ethnic Indian Ocean port city sits the Jardin Ralaimongo. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, I explore the trajectory of the garden to elucidate the ways in which different socio-political groups have drawn on this site to negotiate differences, frame collective memories, and stake their claims to the urban landscape. I show how, as city inhabitants have reworked the spaces of the garden, so too has the park itself – its layout, material artefacts and location within the city – constrained the possibilities of what can be remembered and silenced, and who can be bound to one another, in contemporary times. Over its hundred-year history, this site has been founded, forgotten and reincarnated as a memorial to a succession of revered leaders, thus serving as a kind of spatial register of the historical socio-political changes that have given rise to the city. This article suggests that the deterioration of colonial-era architectural forms through long-standing neglect and abandonment may be understood as an active spatial practice of effacing some dimensions of the past, while the subsequent recuperation of deserted public spaces by certain groups is an effort to position themselves as legitimate residents and express their attachment to the city.

show abstract

Bamako, Mali: Monuments and Modernity in the Urban Imagination

Cited by 28 publications

References 11 publications

The changing nature of statues and monuments in Tshwane (Pretoria) South Africa

The changing nature of statues and monuments in Tshwane (Pretoria) South Africa

Military parade in Mali: understanding Malian politics through spectacle

Neglect as effacement: the multiple lives of the Jardin Ralaimongo, Mahajanga, Madagascar

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About