Colonial Memory Research Articles

Rituals of Colonial Memory: Crafting Imperial Nostalgia in Republican Italy

The latest historiographical trends are revealing how the end of colonialism has influenced the political and social configuration of former metropolitan centres. In particular, the return of former colonial settlers has raised a series of issues that have resonated in European political debates and societies. In Italy, these processes were shaped by a peculiar decolonization process, coinciding with the equally tortuous transition from fascism to the Republic. Drawing on recent historiography on the return of colonial settlers, and expanding the chronological span and methodological scope of previous works through original archival sources, my intervention aims to reconstruct how imperial nostalgia became a political resource exploited by both repatriate associations and conservative political factions. Although similar to contemporaneous cases, in Italy colonial commemorative practices had peculiarities linked to the role of Catholicism and to the fact that far right and even neo-fascist movements exploited the demands of repatriates for their own political benefit. This article thus broadens the historiographical understanding concerning the decline of Italy's empire and deepens the analysis of its lasting impacts on the politics and society of Republican Italy.

Building Counter-Colonial Commemorative Landscapes through Indigenous Collective Remembering in Wānanga

Statues and monuments are permanent forms of commemoration that interpret and reconstruct public memory in colonial settler societies. Representation through memorialisation is attributed to a genealogy of Western collective remembering that reflects the values, narratives, and experiences of the dominant settler population. Yet, collective remembering and memory can change. This article reports on Indigenous collective remembering practices that were observed in a local government intervention in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Boulcott Memorial Research Project sought iwi Māori (Indigenous Māori tribes) perspectives of the battle of Boulcott’s Farm to change a one-sided colonial memorial that was erected to honour British militia who died in the conflict. Iwi kaipūrākau (representatives) from Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Rangatahi, Ngāti Hāua, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira relayed their perspective of the battle through wānanga (a Māori oral tradition). In wānanga, kaipūrākau were perceived to remember relationally, outside colonial time, and through contemporary concerns and political interests, to advance tribal autonomy and self-determination. In this paper, I show how collective remembering in wānanga offers a counter-colonial ethic and intervention for building commemorative landscapes that can redirect public remembrance beyond the limitations of settler colonial memory and towards perspectives that are in tune with Indigenous peoples’ lived realities.

Songs from another land: Decolonizing memories of colonialism and the nutmeg trade

Songs from another land: Decolonizing memories of colonialism and the nutmeg trade

Reframing colonial amnesia: German colonialism and multilingual memory in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives

ABSTRACT Cultural memory of German colonialism is too often described as overshadowed, absent, or forgotten, with references to factors such as the short period of German colonialism, its abrupt end, and the relative lack of postcolonial immigration to Germany. This article reframes established understandings of German colonial memory and colonial amnesia by engaging with representations of German colonialism in the anglophone novel Afterlives (2020) by Abdulrazak Gurnah. I argue that Afterlives provokes a rereading of German cultural memory of colonialism by demonstrating its transnational and multilingual entanglements. My reading of the novel specifically addresses the spatial, temporal, and textual layers of its representation of colonial memory and the roles that archives and intertextuality play in its rereading of the colonial past. In doing so, I illustrate how Gurnah’s text insists on the various layers, entanglements, and intertexts between German colonial memory and anglophone postcolonial texts.

Matthew G. Stanard. The Leopard, the Lion, and the Cock: Colonial Memories and Movements in Belgium. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2019. 338 pp. Photographs. Bibliography. Index. $81.00. Paper. ISBN: 9789462701793.

Matthew G. Stanard. The Leopard, the Lion, and the Cock: Colonial Memories and Movements in Belgium. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2019. 338 pp. Photographs. Bibliography. Index. $81.00. Paper. ISBN: 9789462701793.

Uphicothonzulu lweentsingiselo zegama elithi ‘kaffir ‘ kusetyenziswa inkcazobungcali yobuhlanga

Kukho ingcinga ephosayo, neyalatha ukuba amagama ocalucalulo nathoba isidima sabaNtsundu kwimeko yoMzantsi Afrika omtsha, anokuqondwa ngeenkcazobungcali zesimantiki nepragmatiki kuphela. Loo nto yenza kubekho ukuqhwalela ekuqondeni iintsingiselo ezondele nzulu kwimbali nocalucalulo olwalugquba eMzantsi Afrika. Oku, kungaphezu kokuba kusekho iimpawu nemikhwa yokusetyenziswa kolwimi olucalucalulayo kuMzantsi Afrika omtsha, nto leyo ethi ithibaze kwaye ithintele intsebenziswano nokubumbana phakathi kweentlanga ngeentlanga. Ngesi sizathu, eli nqaku lijolise ekuphicotheni nzulu nasekucubunguleni iintsingiselo eziminxiselwe kwigama elithi kaffir elisetyenziswa kakhulu kwimeko yoMzantsi Afrika ukubulala isidima nokutshabalalisa ubuntu kwisizwe somgquba. Ukuchongwa kweli gama kutyhalwa kukungaqondakali kobunzulu beentsingiselo ezincathame kulo, into ke leyo ethi ikhokelele ekubeni abaMhlophe bangabonakalisi kurhoxa nganeno ngokungqamene nokusebenzisa ulwimi oluthoba isidima sabaNtsundu. Ukuphalisa iingxoxobunzululwazi zeli nqaku, inkcazobungcali yobuhlanga isetyenziswa njengegqwesileyo ukuze kuvele iintsingiselo ezincathame kwigama elithi kaffir kwimeko yoMzantsi Afrika. Iziphumo kunye neengxoxobunzululwazi zeli nqaku zibonisa ukuba eli gama lithi lithunuke, livuselele iinkumbulo kwaye lisebenze njengesithuko kwisizwe sabaNtsundu ngenxa yezenyeliso elizimumethileyo. Phakathi kwezinye iintsingiselo, kuvela ngakumbi nangakumbi ukuba igama eli linentsingiselo ejolise ekwenzeni abaNtsundu izicamba zokuxangxathwa. Ngamazwi aqukumbelayo, kuyabonakala ukuba ulwimi olucalucalulayo lumumethe imbali etyebileyo. Loo nto ibonise ukuba olu lwimi kusafuneka ukuba luphicothwe ngokubanzi kuxhathiswe ngeembonobunzululwazi zaseAfrika. Okungamandla, kugxininiswa ukuba asingombono omhle ukuyeka imbali yabaNtsundu emumethwe lulwimi icime, njengoko ubani enokuqaphela ukuba ulwimi lusisisele senyathi. A critical examination of interwoven meanings in the word ‘kaffir’ using critical race theory There is a misconception which underlines that the linguistic terms of discrimination for the Ntsundu people in the new South African context can only be understood through the theories of semantics and pragmatics. This makes it challenging to understand the meanings that are interwoven in the history of apartheid that prevailed in South Africa. This is more than the reality that there are still lingering signs and behaviours where discriminatory language is used in the new South Africa. This delays and prevents cooperation and inclusivity among different races. For this reason, this article aims to critically examine the profoundly entrenched meanings attached to the word kaffir which has been widely used in the South African context to distort and degrade the nobility and humanity of the Ntsundu people. The preference for this word is motivated by the ambiguity of the depth of the meanings concealed in it. This is what leads to the fact that white people do not seem to discontinue its use, and this degrades the dignity of the Ntsundu people. To advance the discussions of this article, critical race theory is used as a lens to uncover the meanings hidden in the word kaffir in the context of South Africa. The results and discussion in this article underscore that this word is painful, evokes memories of colonialism and serves as an insult to the Ntsundu nation. Among other meanings, it becomes clear that this word has a meaning aimed at making Ntsundu people the target of mockery and humiliation. In closing, it is obvious that discriminatory language has a rich history. This is indicative that this language still needs to be exhaustively critiqued by scholarship and supported by African theoretical perspectives. In addition to this, it is underscored here that it is not an appropriate idea to let the history of the Ntsundu people reproduced by language be erased, as one may observe that language serves as a part of knowledge and history.

The decolonial historiographical traditions of the Antillean Caribbean in the second half of the 20th century and their contribution to the study of colonialism

The manuscript explores the problematics of colonialism and neocolonialism in the West Indian Caribbean after the second half of the twentieth century, proposing the term "decolonial historiographical traditions". This term refers to historical reconstructions that normalize decolonial positions, a concept little explored so far. Using Victor Hugo Acuña Ortega's hypothesis on Central American participation in globalization, the text argues that the Antillean Caribbean, due to its strategic location, has been a key region in the different phases of globalization. The decolonial turn, defined by authors such as Maldonado-Torres, is characterized by its critique of Western modernity and its focus on the problems created by coloniality. This turn has had three stages in the Caribbean: the first with the Haitian Revolution and the independence movements, the second with the decolonizing processes of the second half of the 20th century and the impact of the Cuban Revolution, and the third, since the end of the 20th century, centered on the debates on the global capitalist system and the critique of Eurocentrism. The decolonial historiographical traditions of the Antillean Caribbean are distinguished by their critical and multidisciplinary approach, breaking with nationalist and positivist historiographical traditions. These traditions address issues such as regional integration, identity, and colonization, using innovative methods and concepts that include oral history and the analysis of colonial memory and trauma. The manuscript also discusses the distinctions between colonialism and neocolonialism, highlighting internal and cultural colonialism, and the impact of U.S. imperialism in the region. The work underscores the importance of decolonial methodologies for a more critical understanding of the past and their relevance to contemporary debates on social justice and emancipation.

"Il monocolore non esiste": Postcolonial ekphrasis in Igiaba Scego's novel La linea del colore. Il grand tour di Lafanu Brown

Igiaba Scego’s novel La linea del colore. Il grand tour di Lafanu Brown (2020) is a historical novel, a feminist Bildungsroman, a contemporary migration novel and a global, political novel. It is also a novel of colours and images. The aim of this analysis is to investigate the function of ekphrasis – defined as verbal descriptions of visual representations – in La linea del colore. The question is how this literary device contributes to Scego’s pedagogical and political project of rewriting national history from the point of view of the subaltern, black Italians. Like in her other novels, Scego uses the past to illuminate the present. She relocates colonial memory at the centre of cultural debates in today’s Italy, deconstructing official colonial history. By analysing a small sample of ekphrases, regarding both real and imaginary statues and paintings in the novel, I would like to demonstrate that Scego adds new postcolonial interpretations to the described images. By doing so, she expresses ethical, ideological and poetological contents, aiming to convince her readers that the colour line between black and white people has to be overcome. Scego uses a classical literary device, the ekphrasis, to demonstrate that the line of colour is not only present today but also in Italian Renaissance and Baroque culture.

James Brooke And His Attempts To Instill British Power In Sarawak In The 19th Century

This paper attempts to prove the hard work James Brooke put into enhancing his influence in Sarawak around the nineteenth century. This period signified British exploration conducted on the Malay Peninsula and its vicinity. Brooke clutched the opportunity to attempt his luck in Sarawak. His efforts were difficult, considering that he had to compete with the Sultanate of Brunei and the Head of the Dayak tribe to reach the highest helm. The historical sources got are based on several books published during the Brooke dynasty era in Sarawak. Of course, other secondary sources are also used to contribute to the historical analysis. Historical research methods were used to process this working paper so that it becomes a text worthy of discussion of similar themes. Memories of colonialism in Sarawak are essential to discuss in this era, bearing in mind that there were several positive values that can be treasured, which are then transformed into ideas for Sarawak's development as a sovereign territory. The memory of history will fill an essential space that reduces nationalism and awareness without sacrificing the interests of the public.

Interpreting and Power: Re-articulating Colonial Memories in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible

This article investigates the damage enforced on interpreters in colonial and postcolonial settings. It explores the subordination of an African interpreter working for an American missionary in the Congo, as presented in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible (1998). This is an unexplored area in the novel, and the article shows how the interpreter falls amongst the subaltern groups. The intertwined narratives about the colonization of the Congo and the oppression of women parallel the marginalization of the interpreter. The latter evokes former colonial memories of the subjugation, even the enslavement of translators in the former Portuguese Empire. Theoretically, the article is underpinned by Micheal Cronin’s ideas on translation and power and Lawrence Venuti’s poststructuralist views, which devalue symmetrical approaches to translation. Finally, this work argues how translation can be a means of subordination by the oppressor and empowerment by the oppressed. Ultimately, the interpreter’s independent voice becomes a symbolic revelation of the means marginalized groups should use to overcome dominance and imperialism.

Mnemonic Politics around the Japanese Colonial Era in Post–Cold War Taiwan: Wei Te-sheng's Colonial Trilogy and Post–New Cinema

This article examines mnemonic politics after 1987’s democratization in Taiwan by discussing the cinematic representation of colonial memory, mainly focusing on Wei Te‐Sheng's films set in the Japanese colonial era. After the end of martial law in 1987, prohibited issues such as Japanese colonialism and Indigenous Taiwanese in the representational sphere began to appear on the screen. Therefore, the colonial memory that emerged on screen entangles with Cold War politics and the postcolonial geopolitical situation. In Wei's films, he links heroic Indigenous people in the history of Taiwan with the archetypical land. The suffering of those who are tightly bound to the land inspires a sense of deprived sovereignty—that is, occupation. The sense of occupation indicates the long history of colonial Taiwan, from the time of the Netherlands and Spain, via the Qing Dynasty and Japan, to the KMT government. Wei's films reclaim Taiwanese history from the perspective of the Indigenous people who lived in Taiwan before 1945 rather than that of the occupiers. Regardless of the memory of resistance, surrender, victory, or defeat, Wei's films, however, romanticize the memory of the Japanese colonial era. In doing so, his films denounce the time of KMT “occupiers” in the postcolonial era and reinforce Taiwanese nationalism against Chinese nationalism. Through textual analysis of Wei's films and comparison with other films provoking colonial memory, this article investigates how colonial memories are negotiated in the post–Cold War Taiwanese cinema to reformulate the contentious idea of “nation” and “nationalism” in Taiwan.

Between transnational and postcolonial: mnemonic dynamics in Mémoires d’outre-mer

The article situates Mémoires d’outre-mer in current debates about lieux de mémoire, and in particular about the ways in which the concept elaborated by Pierre Nora is increasingly scrutinized in the light of its silences relating to colonial memory. Ferrier focuses on realms of memory such as the Mahajanga cemetery around which much of his text is constructed, but also engages directly with one of the subjects of Nora’s collection, the school textbook Le Tour de la France par Deux Enfants, in order to open up a discussion of contemporary memory practices in contemporary France. He argues that French memory is often limited to national boundaries, and that any internal diversity is regulated, sanitized, hierarchized, with France’s status as a transculturated, “travelling” culture denied in the process. The novel is a creative reaction to this mnemonic tendency, with the work situated at the intersection of the transnational and postcolonial, two concepts that are far from being synonymous but are nevertheless closely related throughout the text.

Roman Routes in Italian Postcolonial Women Writers

Rome is the city where the memory of Italian colonialism is more evident in the urban space. Nevertheless, this heritage is often neglected or forgotten, just like other traces of Italian colonialism in the national territory and culture. This period of Italian history has indeed never been properly elaborated by Italian culture and historiography, as critics have widely demonstrated. In this essay, traces of Italian colonialism in Rome will be investigated through the analysis of literary contributions produced over the last thirty years, and specifically of texts written by women writers, who proved to have a special perspective on colonialism and its effects on the capital. Novels, short stories, poems and autobiographies by Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, Shirin Ramzanali Fazel, Igiaba Scego and Ribka Sibhatu – and specifically the paths covered by their fictional characters in the urban space – will thus serve as guides to explore the city. The aim of the essay is to shed light on the present identity of Rome as a complex city and as the object of new narrations. From Stazione Termini to Quartiere Africano, passing through Piazza di Porta Capena, Piazzale Flaminio and other places, this essay remaps the urban space and questions Rome’s colonial heritage. As a result, it shows that displacing the traditional significance given to monuments, streets and squares in Rome means rediscussing Italian history and national identity.

Rupture and reconciliation: the neoliberal logics of Emmanuel Macron’s colonial memory policies

ABSTRACT First as candidate and then as President, Emmanuel Macron has elevated colonial memory policy as a key site for the performance and enactment of the dual values of rupture and reconciliation that underpin his broader programme. While this has led to significant symbolic shifts in the French state’s narrative of its colonial history, this article argues that this memory policy cannot and should not be disaggregated from his wider neoliberal project. Through a detailed contextualisation and analysis of President Macron’s interventions in the field, I contend that colonial memory policy simultaneously reflects, legitimises, and constitutes the ‘neoliberal political rationality’ his administration seeks to perpetuate. Under Macron, a limited recognition of France’s responsibilities for colonial violence has been accompanied by an effort to neutralise the political potency of the past, obscure its enduring legacies, assign authority over it to designated experts and delegitimise those who contest this logic. The article illustrates how memory policy has become a means of sublimating contemporary political demands, arising in part from historic structural injustices, into the manageable and managed process of consensus-making that is the hallmark of neoliberal governmentality.

The Anti-Functional Creativity: Obsolete Objects in “The Castaway”

In Derek Walcott’s “The Castaway,” the ambiguous images and isolated castaway evoke the sordid colonial memory and its aftermath of the Caribbean cultural predicament, while, in poetic creation, they also elicit a sense of creative vitality. The interreaction between the negative content and the positive effect is activated, intriguingly, right by those images—sandflies, feces, entrails, decaying objects, etc., whose meanings are often degraded since their disvalued representations in the tangible world. Francesco Orlando once discusses functionally repressed physical things, basically capitalistic-evaluate, as “obsolete objects”, and proposes that these objects can achieve an anti-functional return in literature. This suggests the disvalued images can be excited artistically by their ambivalences. Based on Orlando’s discussion, this paper focuses on the ambiguous images, proposing that these “obsolete objects” subvert the pervasive negation, through their multiple connotations and the intertextuality in Walcott’s works. Besides the postcolonial echo of self-help communicated by the poet’s appropriation of Robinson Crusoe, it is these images replace the predicament presented in the poem with the artistic newness of natural self-sufficiency. This also raises a reflection on utilitarian and anthropocentric ideas of the highly commodified and functional today.

Mnemonic-Historical Materials of Literature: Local Prose Genealogy and Historical Context of Taiwanese Writers during Japanese Colonial Period in the Post-war Era

<p>當前臺灣文學本土論研究的解釋框架中，多以小說作為主軸，散文相對受到忽視。然而，散文對於臺灣文學本土論而言，其實有著不可或缺的意義，因為它作為個人經歷或歷史經驗的表述與再現，具有奠基於真實性的基礎，不僅涉及文學表意，更包含記憶政治的問題。日治作家在戰後回溯過去生命經歷的「散文」，具有述史的性質，因而既是自傳，同時也是「記憶性文學史料」。在日治記憶遭受壓抑的戒嚴期間，他們的散文集是戰後世代認識日治的第一手文本，更是建構日治臺灣史與臺灣文學史的重要一環。本文聚焦由戰後初期至解嚴之前這段期間，曾於生前或身後出版散文集的日治本土作家，透過文本分析，考察日治作家的生命史與精神史，以彰顯個人的歷史意識，並梳理散文的文類概念與語言使用，藉此探討不同時代散文集的出版意義，試圖指出在戰後戒嚴體制的時空情境裡，本土散文具備重建歷史記憶的功能，形成一個有別於中國抒情傳統的本土「述史」傳統。沿著這個脈絡，進而重新評估本土散文在臺灣文學史上的重要性，以拓展臺灣本土文學論的內涵。</p> <p> </p><p>The current studies of Taiwanese literary localism have built its framework mostly on novel; prose, by contrast, is often overlooked. However, prose has crucial significance for Taiwanese literary localism, in that it articulates and represents personal lives and historical experiences. Prose is based on reality, engaging with literary expression and the politics of memory. When Taiwanese writers who lived through the Japanese colonial period wrote about their past experiences in prose, their writings were characterized by a historical narrative. As such, their writings are both autobiographies and “Mnemonic-Historical Materials of Literature.” During the martial law era when Japanese colonial memories are suppressed, their prose collections are the first-hand texts for the post-war generation to learn about Japanese colonization; furthermore, they play a vital role in constructing the history of Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Rule and the history of Taiwanese literature. This paper focuses on Taiwanese writers under Japanese Colonial Rule, who had published prose collections during the life time or posthumously, from the early post-war years to the period just before the lifting of martial law. Through textual analysis, the paper investigates the life histories and spiritual histories to foreground the historical consciousness in these individuals. The paper also explores the notion of genre and the language use of prose to discuss the significance of publishing proses in a different era. The paper seeks to indicate that local proses serve to reconstruct historical memories during the martial law era, forming a local history narrative tradition distinct from the Chinese lyrical tradition. Following this vein, the paper reevaluates the significance of Taiwanese local prose in the history of Taiwanese literature, so as to enrich the scope of Taiwanese literary localism.</p> <p> </p>

Commemorating the Fascist Empire: The Public Memory of Rodolfo Graziani in Modern Italy

This essay will analyze the public memory of Italy’s most prominent colonial general, Rodolfo Graziani, in light of his recent commemoration in his hometown near Rome. During Graziani’s lifetime, fascist propaganda and censorship praised him as a colonial war “hero” and omitted the countless atrocities he committed during Italy’s colonial wars in Libya and Ethiopia in the 1920s and 1930s. As the colonial campaigns proved unanimously popular in fascist Italy, Graziani’s positive reputation was only jeopardised due to his polarising role as Chief of Staff in the Republic of Salò during Italy’s Civil War between 1943 and 1945. After the war, he was tried and acquitted for Nazi collaborationism whilst his colonial crimes went completely unquestioned, sparking grave consequences for the public memory of Italian fascism and colonialism. Since his death, neofascist parties and communities have persistently rehabilitated their “heroic” remembrance of Graziani through sites of memory which resulted in a publicly funded monument in 2012. The Italian government’s continued denial of Graziani’s colonial atrocities and censorship of foreign films in recent decades demonstrate the suppression of his colonial crimes and are reflective of the lack of public awareness and mass protest to Graziani’s recent monument. Whilst Ethiopian, British and American journalists met the news with public condemnation, the Italian press barely mentioned it and the only domestic protests to the commemoration came from directly affected communities and organisations. The essay will therefore contrast Graziani’s commemoration in Italy to counter memories of Graziani in Italy and abroad in order to analye that which has been publicly commemorated, contested, ignored and suppressed in postfascist and postcolonial Italy.

Remediating family memories of Italian colonialism: Beyond the Frame as process and product

The article analyzes Beyond the Frame ( Oltre i bordi, 2023), a film based on Simone Brioni's fortuitous discovery of a family archive: a box of photographs taken in Italian East Africa in the 1930s by a distant relative. Beyond the Frame discusses colonial photography and visuality, as well as the material legacies of that past, challenging the gaze through which they framed the subjective and collective idea of Africa in Italian society. The article is divided into two parts, each of which discusses colonial photography and how Beyond the Frame observes, interprets, and reflects on how the legacy of colonialism shapes our present. In the first part, Brioni traces the process that led to the construction of a narrative that interweaves personal reflections and collective history. In the second part, Gianmarco Mancosu draws upon Ann Laura Stoler's work to discuss how the colonial archive and the remains of empire fashion our present, with a particular emphasis on photography and on colonial traces in the Italian cityscape. The article shows how the film works with as well as against the archive: how it enacts a process of resignification, thus modifying the original meaning of colonial pictures.

Embodying the colonial memory. White colonists and “implicated subjects” in photographs from Equatorial Guinea

Except for explicitly colonial approaches, academic research on the visual culture of former colonies tends to adopt an allegedly critical perspective towards colonial history, as a way to participate in the construction of a conscious memory that helps to transform contemporary relationships. However, for a while, the hypervisibility of colonised peoples has been compared to the lack of visibility of white colonisers in academic studies. In line with theories of cultural memory, this study examines images as critical cultural artefacts to argue that racial deidentification in images of colonial Equatorial Guinea takes the focus away from the current society of the former metropolis, and thus from its memory and its colonial responsibility. I present a theoretical approach to photographs of white people ranging from the early 20th century to family images during the final years of colonial domination (1959-1968). These chiefly depict everyday scenes whose protagonists are apparently oblivious to the colonial context, and in which nothing seems to happen, in the same way, that their descendants, understood collectively, are enabled to ignore the colonial past and its continuities.

La paradoja del desarrollo: consultas comunitarias en la posguerra guatemalteca

En América Latina, la resistencia contra el extractivismo capitalista patrocinado por el Estado ha sido fortalecida por una alianza de movimientos indígenas y ambientalistas que movilizan nuevas formas de participación democrática. ¿Cómo recurren estos movimientos al pasado como fuente de inspiración para persistir en su organización, incluso frente a la exclusión sistemática? Once meses implementando una etnografía de mosaico con una organización de derechos indígenas en Guatemala revelan empíricamente el despliegue de mecanismos narrativos como parte de su repertorio cultural para concertar acciones estratégicas. El caso emblemático de la lucha en curso por la consulta «consensuada, libre, previa e informada» sobre la mina de explotación mineral más antigua de Guatemala en el pueblo lacustre de El Estor muestra acción cívica desplegada a través de imaginaciones temporales: una reconstrucción narrativa de cómo los movimientos sociales se imaginan en la historia y se posicionan en el tiempo. Conectando tres niveles de creación de significado a través de la memoria colectiva de la resistencia frente al colonialismo, el genocidio y el extractivismo, el liderazgo comunitario maya quekchí articula la «coordinación del futuro» a través de la memoria colectiva. Estas acciones directas sirven para resistir al Estado, abriendo nuevas avenidas para la reconceptualización del territorio indígena, el desarrollo en el posconflicto y las ambigüedades políticas de la organización social.