Remembering the Fragmented: War, Memory, and Repair in Colombia

The South American nation of Colombia has experienced decades of violence involving state, guerrilla, and paramilitary actors, resulting in profound and enduring consequences. Scholars have examined both the violent events and the subsequent truth and reconciliation initiatives addressing this complex history. Pilar Riaño-Alcalá introduces a novel perspective by integrating Black, Indigenous, and memory studies in her analysis of two significant sites of mass violence: Bahia Portete, a Wayuu Indigenous territory in Upper Guajira, and Bojayá, a Black and Embera Indigenous territory in Chocó. By recognizing nonhuman and nonliving community members as actants and foregrounding Indigenous and Black ontologies in collective remembrance, Riaño-Alcalá reveals the processes through which these communities engage in social repair. She demonstrates how they interpret, restore, sustain, and reimagine their identities amid ongoing challenges posed by war and racial capitalism. This work advances scholarship in human rights studies, memory studies, Indigenous studies, Latin American studies, and the anthropology of social repair, offering significant new insights into a well-examined historical context.