The Burden of Memory considers all of Africa–indeed, all the world–as it poses the next logical question: Once repression stops, is reconciliation between oppressor and victim possible? In the face of centuries-long devastations wrought on the African continent and her Diaspora by slavery, colonialism, Apartheid, and the manifold faces of racism what form of recompense could possibly be adequate? In a voice as eloquent and humane as it is forceful, Soyinka examines this fundamental question as he illuminates the principle duty and “near intolerable burden” of memory to bear the record of injustice.
Author: Wole Soyinka
