The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness (The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute Series)

The Burden of Memory is a powerful and thought-provoking book by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, which examines the question of reconciliation between oppressor and victim in the aftermath of centuries of devastating injustices such as slavery, colonialism, Apartheid, and racism.

Through eloquent and humane language, Soyinka challenges notions of simple forgiveness and confession and absolution as strategies for social healing, instead turning to art as a source that may nourish the seed of reconciliation.

Based on Soyinka's Stewart-McMillan lectures delivered at the Du Bois Institute at Harvard, this book speaks not only to those concerned specifically with African politics but also to anyone seeking the path to social justice through some of history's most inhospitable terrain.