By Yunus S Saliu
The Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC) in December 2024 completed a weeklong training for Steering and Technical Committees for the Implementation of the Post TRRC National Memorialization Framework on Implementing a Coordinated Victim-Centered Memorialization Strategy. This training was held at the Senegambia Hotel, Kololi from the 9th to the 13th of December 2024.
Members of the two committees were extremely proud of the training and described it as educative and impressive. It will have an impact on their experience, and knowledge, and as participants, it will play a part in their careers, especially in having free access to the experienced trainers namely, Gegê Leme Joseph, Devon Gulbraudsen, and Cate Turner from the International Coalition of Sites (ICSC) for further guidance.
The global initiative for justice, truth, and reconciliation memorialization training objectives included equipping the Steering and Technical Committee members to contribute effectively to the development and implementation of the national memorialization strategy by building a shared understanding of memorialization’s theoretical and practical aspects, engage with and validate draft findings of national consultant from community consultations, and build a shared understanding of the possibilities and limitations of a Memorialization Strategy.
Different topics including memorialization and transitional justice, meaning and introduction of memorialization, recognition and healing, setting the record straight, violence prevention and non-recurrence, memorialization, truth commissions and truth-telling, study tour to the Memory House, tour and presentation at Memory House, building trust, engagement and sharing power, the ladder of participation, trauma, healing, and memorialization on day one and two of the training.
Days three, four, and five of the training covered memorialization for social cohesion – best practices and potential pitfalls, competing priorities – memorialization as symbolic reparations vs economic development, creating living memorials – memorialization for ongoing community engagement, visioning exercise, planning memorialization actions, panel discussion – lessons learned from within the Gambia, presentation – key findings and recommendation from ICSC’s 2022 memorialization needs assessment, presentation of draft findings from community consultations, and memorialization strategies – possibilities and limitations, all these plus group works, case studies were included in the package.
However, memorialization as explained is the process through which memory is perpetuated, meaning the ways “we preserve the memory of individuals or historical events and collectively carry those memories with us into the future, whether as a community region, or nation.”
Individual memory is lived experiences and personal truth, and “it is useful for documentation, witness statements and contributing to connections with others with similar experiences.” And collective memories and narratives create an enduring and shared memory of events that help to heal the wounds of violence and prevent the recurrence of mass atrocities-and creates narrative of struggle and achievement, victory, and defeat.
Facilitators iterated that memorialization is about constructing shared narratives for communities and groups of people. In divided societies, it is especially important that memorable consider diverse perspectives and the needs of marginalized groups.
As a form of truth-telling, “memorialization initiatives can publicly recognize victims and past human rights violations while contributing to broader processes of societal healing and reconciliation. However, memorialization can also play an important role in sensitizing the public to broader truth-telling and accountability processes, advocating for institutional reforms, and educating future generations to support non-recurrence and human rights values.”
Making presentations on violence prevention and non-recurrence, trainers awakened the knowledge of participants that memorialization and memory projects can promote cultures of respect for human rights and a greater sense of empathy, helping to draw important lessons from the past and prevent violence from recurring.
However, it is worth knowing that memorials do not always promote human rights values, they can be used to celebrate the perceived dominance of one group over another or to give credibility to repressive violence regimes. Also, authoritarian regimes will often use monuments and memorials to symbolically validate one-sided or biased versions of historical events.
Consequently, challenges of memorialization, as outlined including survivors may not feel safe sharing or be available to share their experiences during times of conflict, memorialization may feel like a lower priority during active conflict, institutional capacity may be lower in times of conflict.
During this training, Gege Leme Joseph discussed the importance of memorialization to the community with focus on memorialization, truth-telling, and truth commissions which based on memory-truth-justice this combined truth prosecution institutional reform, and reparation.
No peace without Memory, Gege quoted Archbishop de Berranger – “Conscience is formed by memory; and no society can live in peace with itself on the basis of a false or repressed past, any more than an individual can.”
Truth-telling is all about people sharing their stories, from individual to collective and the four truths in memorialization include forensic, social, personal and reconciliatory truths.
She continued that memorialization as the fifth pillar of transitional justice preserves historical memory, honoursvictims and survivors, promotes collective healing, educates non-recurrence, and fosters social cohesion. Memorialization before truth commissions preserves local narratives raises awareness empowers communities.
Notwithstanding, needs to be put into consideration when it comes to memorialization during truth commissions including facilitating testimonies, promoting inclusivity, healing through participation, highlighting structural injustices, and integrating justice and healing. While memorialization after truth commissions requires sustaining memory and truth-telling, preventing erasure and denial, building resilience, and fostering long-term reconciliation
