Religion, Social Memory And Conflict: The Massacre Of Bojayá In Colombia (palgrave Studies In Compromise After Conflict)

This book studies how religion influences the way people in Colombia remember a massacre of 79 civilians that occurred in a Catholic church in 2002. It analyses how strategies of memorialisation are part of religious peacebuilding initiatives that aim to resist and denounce crimes against human, ethnic, cultural and economic rights. The field of transitional justice and reconciliation considers social memory to be an important mechanism for acknowledging the violation of victims' rights and a step toward building peace. Societies in conflict, such as Colombia, challenge our current understanding of using memory in the construction of social peace processes, which in turn question the impossibility of forgiving violence that is still to come. Drawing on original ethnographical research, Rios analyses strategies of memorialization after the massacre of Bojaya, Colombia, as an arena of political contention but also of grassroots resistance to persistent and diverse forms of violence. The book focuses on the work of the local grassroots Catholic Church and of the victims' association ten years after the massacre of Bojaya. It explores the role of religion in the management of victims' emotions and in supporting claims of transitional justice from a grassroots perspective in a context of thin political transition "The field of transitional justice and reconciliation considers social memory to be an important mechanism for acknowledging the violation of victims' rights and a step toward building peace. Societies in conflict, such as Colombia, challenge our current understanding of using memory in the construction of social peace processes, which in turn question the impossibility of forgiving violence that is still to come. Drawing on original ethnographical research, Rios analyses strategies of memorialization after the massacre of Bojayá, Colombia, as an arena of political contention but also of grassroots resistance to persistent and diverse forms of violence. The book focuses on the work of the local grassroots Catholic Church and of the victims' association ten years after the massacre of Bojayá. It explores the role of religion in the management of victims' emotions and in supporting claims of transitional justice from a grassroots perspective in a context of thin political transition"--From publisher's website Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Introduction....Pages 1-9 Social Memory in Post-Atrocity Contexts....Pages 10-27 Religion, Emotions and Memory after Atrocity....Pages 28-41 The Conflict in Colombia and Chocó....Pages 42-61 Religious Peacebuilding in Chocó....Pages 62-84 Multiple Memories of the Massacre of Bojayá....Pages 85-118 Religious Emotions and Social Memory after the Massacre....Pages 119-136 Funerary Rituals as Resistance and Memorialisation....Pages 137-151 Religious Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice from Below....Pages 152-171 Conclusion....Pages 172-179 Back Matter....Pages 180-206