Abstract

QUICENO TORO, Natalia  and  ORJUELA VILLANUEVA, Camila. Bojayá: memory and horizons of peace. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2017, vol.40, suppl.1, pp.103-127. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v40n1Supl.65909.

As shown in the report of the National Center for Historical Memory, the Bojayá massacre is a representative case in thinking about the effects of the war on the Black communities of the Middle Atrato and their collective territories. The article shows how the dynamics and tensions experienced by the inhabitants of this municipality, due to issues such as the construction of collective memories, reparation, reestablishment, and forgiveness, are emblematic and pose challenges and controversies with respect to the more institutionalized discourses on memory, both in times of war and of building horizons for peace. The paper examines some of the spaces of emergence of memories, such as the production of the report Bojayá. La guerra sin límites (Bojayá, A Boundless War), the commemoration of the massacre every May 2nd, and public acts, such as that of 6 December 2015, in which the FARC-EP acknowledged their responsibility in perpetrating the massacre.

The events occurred after the massacre, the continued political and social armed violence in the Middle Atrato, and the transformations experienced by the inhabitants of the region have put temporalities and moralities into tension and made it essential to consider the multiple challenges the country must face when thinking about collective reparation processes and the consolidation of a lasting peace in the territories. In this sense, the article sees the work of memory carried out in Bojayá as fostering political discussions about the future and the way in which experiences lived during the past and present wars are represented. It shows how an event -the Bojayá massacre- triggers another series of memories that reveal a peculiar relationship to time, peacebuilding, and territory. The article is a reflection resulting from the work of the researchers in different projects and assistance processes in the region, especially in initiatives led by the National Center for Historical Memory, as well as in the development of ethnographic research projects in different Afro-Colombian communities in the municipality of Bojayá.

Keywords : Bojayá; war; historical memory; peace; political transitions.

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