Healing of Memories

Africa has seen many political crises ranging from violent political ideologies, to meticulous articulated racist governance system, to ethnic clashes resulting in genocide and religious conflicts that have planted the seed of mutual suspicion.The masses impacted by such crises live with the past that has not passed. The Healing of Memories: African Christian Responses to Politically Induced Trauma examines Christian responses to the damaging impact of conflict on the collective memory. Troubled memory is a recipe for another cycle of conflict. While most academic works tend to stress forgiving and forgetting, they did not offer much as to how to deal with the unforgettable past. This book aims to fill this gap by charting an interdisciplinary approach to healing the corrosive memories of painful pasts. Taking a cue from the empirical expositions of post-apartheid South Africa, post-genocide Rwanda, the Congo Wars, and post-Red Terror Ethiopia, this volume brings together coherent healing approaches to deal with traumatic memory.

When suffering occurs, theological interpretations of why persons suffer often exacerbate traumatic reality. We do this in unearned intimacy and contrived happy endings. Girma Mohammed’s edited volume guides the reader to much more helpful wisdom in that human cultures and societies need not perpetuate traumatic reality; rather, we can begin to move toward flourishing. Here, in this book, we gain such wisdom from the African context for how to move consistently toward healing and costly reconciliation.

Mohammed Girma is international advocacy officer (IBAC), visiting lecturer of intercultural studies at London School of Theology and research associate at the University of Pretoria.