Conference : Conflicting memories for an uncertain heritage

On the 1st of March, following a research trip in South Africa, Barbara Morovich participated in a conversation with Judith Hayem held at IFAS-Johannesburg. It featured a 45-minute presentation followed by a 45-minute conversation, providing insights into the project « A forgotten heritage? Minority, competing and contradictory memories of mining in South Africa » supported by IFAS- Research, IFRA-Nigeria, and CLERSE-Lille.

 This reseach intends to document and analyse the existence of « minority » heritage narratives or projects existing about South African mines in a singular context where working mines stand next to closed ones, and where the requalification of former mining sites in order to enter an ecological transition is organised while, at the same time, in others, illegal exploitation is conducted by underpriviledged migrant workers, concurrential and contradictory memories are emerging about mining history. Do they qualify as heritage ? By which memory issues and  representations of the presents  are they structured ? What is the place of Marikana massacre (2012) in the narratives ? What is at stake and who organizes the debates of heritage processe? This projet is about how contemporary prescriptions and memorial choices shade light on the South Africans’ becoming of mining people, towns and territories today.