{"id":24290,"date":"2024-10-16T08:03:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T08:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peacerep.org\/?post_type=publication&#038;p=24290"},"modified":"2025-01-03T13:03:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T13:03:41","slug":"afro-iraqis-and-the-politics-of-non-memory","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/gentest.cahss.ed.ac.uk\/dev-peacerep\/publication\/afro-iraqis-and-the-politics-of-non-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"Afro-Iraqis and the Politics of Non-Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Author: <\/strong>Taif Alkhudary<\/p>\n<p>This paper finds that the history and culture of Afro-Iraqis are absent from dominant discourses around Iraq\u2019s history and its people. It argues that complicated processes, both volitional and unconscious, have worked to relegate the history of this marginalised community to the realm of \u2018non-memory\u2019. In other words, they have worked to create a \u2018blank spot\u2019 in collective memory but have not been able to erase the community\u2019s history altogether. These processes include the refusal to publicly acknowledge racial discrimination in Iraq or its role in the slave trade. It is also the result of the legacy of long-entrenched stereotypes about the Black Other in the Middle Eastern imaginary, which has meant that it is taken for granted that the history and the culture of Afro-Iraqis lack importance for broader Iraqi society. In the face of non-memory, Afro-Iraqis have preserved their history and culture on a community level, through rituals, which have their roots in African religious practices. These allow Afro-Iraqis to connect with their ancestors and maintain a sense of community and spirituality. However, stigma and shame around the cultural practices of people of African descent and the death of knowledge keepers of these orally transmitted traditions continue to pose significant challenges to their preservation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/peacerep.org\/about\/countries\/iraq\/\">Explore all PeaceRep Iraq research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taif Alkhudary argues that Afro-Iraqis&#8217; history and culture have been excluded from Iraq&#8217;s collective memory due to societal denial of racial discrimination and entrenched stereotypes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":24291,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[1825,235],"tags":[],"authors":[1954],"class_list":["post-24290","publication","type-publication","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iraq","category-publication","countries-iraq","authors-alkhudary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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