A disturbing moral dilemma is explored by the noted Nigerian
writer. In the first and by far the weightiest of the three essays
that make up this volume, Nobel laureate Soyinka (Art, Dialogue and
Outrage, 1994, etc.) struggles with a dilemma: how should societies
respond to the commission of despicable acts in public life? These
can occur on a systemic level, such as slavery in the US or
apartheid in South Africa, or through the hands of an individual
tyrant such as the current ruler of Nigeria, Sanni Abacha. In
either case, forgiveness, a salve on the wounds to promote healing,
would seem to be the morally superior option, even if such
generosity is beyond the capabilities of most people. But is
excusing morally outrageous behavior moral or simply foolish?
Perhaps healing requires revenge, an excising of the cancer. Are we
to imagine, for example, a repentant Poi Pot walking the streets
like any other man, freed by the forgiveness of those whom he did
not manage to kill? Soyinka identifies forgiveness as "a value far
more humanly exacting than vengeance" yet cannot swallow the
proposition that it will, by itself, suffice. Something is missing
from a process which absolves the perpetrators of tyranny so
completely that they assume the same moral or civil status as those
whose conduct is crime-free. Soyinka's answer is reparations, a
paying back from victimizer to victim, but even this sits somewhat
uneasily. As in the remaining essays focusing on negritude, there
is a sense that the playwright in Soyinka is building layers of
thought not to resolve the issue, but to illustrate its
unresolvability. No definitive analysis proving that reparations
will solve the moral dilemma is to be found here, and perhaps that
is part of the cost of despicable acts: once committed, there are
no longer answers with which we should be completely comfortable.
Powerful stuff. (Kirkus Reviews)
When Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka's
The Open Sore of a Continent appeared in 1996, it received rave reviews in the national media. Now comes Soyinka's powerful sequel to that fearless and passionate book,
The Burden of Memory.
Where Open Sore offered a critique of African nationhood and a searing indictment of the Nigerian military regime, 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? This book speaks not only to those concerned specifically with African politics, but also to anyone seeking the path to social justice through some of history's most inhospitable terrain.
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