Memory, The Return of the Repressed and Healing in John Ruganda’s "The Floods"

Abstract

Memory, the agency of speech and the impossibility of forgetting traumatic experiences is central towards the healing process of survivors of violence. Witnessing through narration, although somewhat traumatizing and damaging in itself, is ironically therapeutic and the only way towards coming to terms with a painful past. This article interrogates how memory and remembering is not only a healing process for victims of abuse in an abusive state but also as a strategy that John Ruganda uses to testify to/against a tyranny of the past in “The Floods” to preserve a nation’ collective memory of repression in a violent  political era.