Destroyed by Love: nation,memory, and humanity in South Asia

Remembered experiences of violence, humiliation, and loss suffered in the 1971 war of Bangladesh offer a site for writing a new contemporary history in South Asia. Love, not for humanity but for nation, in survivors' memories was the site of violence in the war. The state's history-writing project cultivated hate against neighbors deemed enemies and encouraged violence against them. More than four decades later, the awareness of intersubjective relationships leads survivors—victims and perpetrators—to search for meaning beyond their national labels. The quest leads to the renewal of insāniyat, a South Asian concept of humanity, which survivors suggest is the site of human freedom from violence.     

GO AHEAD, GO AWAY: A Poem by Fatoumata Keita, Mali Translated by Judith G. Miller

Translator's Note: This poem originally appeared in French in May 1999, in the first issue of a new Malian poetry review: Kuma, the literary magazine of the Union of Young Malian Writers. My former New York University in Paris student, Laura Starecheski, helped launch the review while studying in Bamako. An activist, sensitive writer, and reader herself, Laura seeks out women's voices wherever they can be heard. She especially wants people to be aware of Fatoumata Keita, a 23-year-old poet. I think that Laura Starecheski and Fatoumata Keita are part of the linking chorus of women connecting us to each other across continents and oceans. To me, they are the “inheritors”: carrying on, with their distinctive vehement energy, the life-long intellectual and emotional commitment of feminists such as Claire Duchen. Those interested in supporting this Malian writers' project should write to: KUMA, BP E3026, Bamako, Mali, West Africa.