“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”: Decolonial memory activists and the duty to remember in postcolonial Belgium (2010–present)

Abstract

The duty to remember and its promises are increasingly challenged. Following the “activist turn” in memory studies, this article analyzes how memory activists internally discuss the idea of the duty to remember. Since 2010, Afrodescendant memory activists play a pivotal role in raising public awareness about colonialism and its legacies in contemporary Belgian society. First, I show how a group of decolonial memory activists has embraced the duty to remember in their counter-memory campaigns and political lobbying. Second, I analyze the resistance of some activists to the framing of their decolonial demands in these terms. I demonstrate that how memory activists view the duty to remember is not only related to what they believe but is also shaped by processes of (self-)presentation in relation to outsiders, state actors, and each other. Here, socio-economic backgrounds, gender, but also personalities play a key role.