The memory universe: remembering political violence and massacres in grassroots communities in Liberia

Abstract

This thesis seeks to address one critical question: how are grassroots communities in Liberia memorialising political violence perpetrated through sites of massacre. The overall aim of this research is to investigate local/grassroots memorialisation as a transitional justice strategy to remember Liberia’s history of political violence and the civil war. Through an in-country comparative study, the thesis examines community organising, the deliberative process of designing symbolic reparative measures and assess whether these processes are inclusive or otherwise. Beyond the micro, it also analyses how these memorials interface with the official narrative of the conflict or are shaping transitional justice discourse at the grassroots level. Based on eight focus group discussions, twelfth key informant interviews, visual, and a database on sites of massacres, the research finds that grassroots communities memorialisation of political violence is occurring in what I term a memory universe defined by invisible and visible markers, identity and place. Based on this, I make several determinations. One, grassroot communities are engaged in the invisible practice of memory, a praxis that accounts for materiality in the same way that visible memorialisation does. Two, contrary to the dominant literature’s repudiation of dreams and memory, I argue that the dream state is coherent both in structure, meaning and interpretation. Using empirical data, I support this claim by asserting that the dream state is an extension of collective (and social memory formation) memory as is the waking state. Third, I postulate that there is a proliferation of memory in Liberia. I discuss the concept of pan-tribal solidarity to go beyond the neat bifurcation of settler and indigenous peoples as some scholars have attempted to oversimplify. In this memory universe, pan-tribal solidarity conceptualises the identity of those belonging to the practice of secret society and their involvement in memorialisation processes. While Liberia is a confederation of ethnic nations, secret society represents a certain hierarchy, a stratification of identity at the grassroots level. This determination helps to push against the reductionist classification of vernacular, grassroot or local memory as simple and homogenous processes. Taken together, I theorise that there is pattern of social exclusion at the grassroots level that is undermining the cohesion require for transformative memory making.

Thesis is embargoed until 30 September 2027.

Date of Award	Sept 2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Brandon Hamber (Supervisor) & Kristian Brown (Supervisor)