PAIN, PAINFUL MEMORIES AND THE AFRICAN PAST: A LITERATURE AND HISTORIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Abstract

Pain and painful memories influence people’s behavior, shape identities, and regulate societal emotions. It is, therefore, an essential primary source of historical reconstruction. However, given their emotive, subjective, and manipulative propensities, the use of pain and painful memories in the African historian’s craft has been negligible. This study engages how scholars have approached the discourse of pain and painful memories in reconstructing African history. The study is a literature/historiographical review and, thus, privileged secondary sources. The central argument of the study is that painful memories reveal a lot about the past and are crucially relevant troves for engaging and interpreting the African past, and African historians have shown little enthusiasm in engaging this subfield. The study advances the gains that can be made in different subfields of African history by paying attention to memories as a source of historical inquiry.