This article examines the primary characteristics of two distinct Berlin commemorative cultures during the Cold War, as reflected in plaques dedicated to the resistance against the Nazi regime. In East Berlin, the plaques primarily honoured communist resistance, serving to legitimise state power. In contrast, in West Berlin, they predominantly emphasised conservative-military and Christian resistance, functioning both as symbolic markers of a process of moral restitution and as material evidence of an anderes Deutschland ('Another Germany'). The article focuses on two districts located on opposite sides of the East-West divide: Steglitz in the West and Friedrichshain in the East, where forms of resistance, their subsequent commemoration and their present-day legacy have diverged significantly.
This article advances Agaciro as a decolonial approach for researching colonial memory politics. The concept is derived from a formerly colonised society and roughly translates as ‘relational dignity’. It represents a decolonial perspective that remains underutilised in memory studies, even as postcolonial scholarship has addressed colonial durabilities. Empirically, we deploy Agaciro thinking to analyse parliamentary commissions of inquiry into Belgian colonial crimes in the African Great Lakes region and the memory politics linked to experiences of colonialism in Belgium. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork and discourse analysis of commission documents to identify how forms of silencing shape Western-led discussions of colonial responsibility and memory. Foregrounding Agaciro reveals how dominant ethical and epistemological frameworks marginalise African perspectives and calls for more decolonial alternatives for rethinking questions of colonial memory and justice in memory studies and beyond.
Memory is essential to Indigenous knowledge sharing, as it shapes how history, culture, and traditions are understood and maintained. Yet, the history of Settler Canada has been in contention with Indigenous understandings of the past as settler-colonialism has worked to minimize historical truths and create alternative and often blind histories. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada worked to share the lived experiences and atrocities of Indian Residential Schools and, over the last few years, has gained recognition for September 30th as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The overall aim has been to highlight the truths about Indian Residential Schools, but in doing so, Canadian society has normalized the narratives of trauma without moving forward to not only the 94 Calls to Action but what Reconciliation means, and the actions needed to undertake this responsibility as a collective for all of Canada and not just Indigenous Peoples. This article examines the role of memory and recollection from a Nêhiyawak (Four-Spirit/Plains Cree) point of view as it examines the normalization of one of Canada’s greatest atrocities, further harming Indigenous Peoples.
