Oral history and catastrophe

Oral history can bring humanity and heart to some of the darkest tragedies experienced by contemporary civilization. Rwanda, Bosnia, The Holocaust, Armenia, Darfur, WWI and WWII, Vietnam, Nanjing, 9/11, London. Sadly, I could go on and on.

No matter how graphic or how intense, an individual's ability to remember both emotional and physical details from such events is astounding. What I have found most interesting is the development of women's wartime testimony throughout the twentieth century. I have spent some time analyzing testimonies of sexual violence during the Holocaust and have located very few transcribed oral histories. As sexual violence continues today both during war and peace-time, it is apparent that women in western society have started to record oral histories regarding rape and other forms of gendered violence. Despite these developments, society's insensitive handling of violence against women and girls continues in many parts of the developed and developing world. Personal tragedies are harder to record in highly traditional and/or religious societies such as Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda due to societal retribution, honor killings, filial expectations, etc. An oral history colleague mentioned that she has been building rapport with victims of sexual violence or "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia--for over a year. She hopes to be able to gather some oral testimony in the near future.

Contemporary examples from Venezuela and Pakistan reminds us of the prevalence of gendered violence even during peacetime. Linda Loaiza's (Venezuela) story can be read at: http://www.freechoicesaveslives.org/campaign/Linda while Mukhtar Mai's horrific tale of gendered violence in Pakistan is recalled at: http://www.mukhtarmai.com/Mai'sTragedy.htm

Obviously, oral historians must take great care when engaging in this type of project. The interviewee must be handled with sensitivity and the oral historian should be trained in gathering catastrophe-based testimony. The last thing an historian wants is to re-victimize an already vulnerable victim.

I have this post in my head due to this week's release of 9/11 oral histories by the City of New York. If you have not read about these oral histories, make sure you try to catch an explanatory article in the NYTimes. One of these articles can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/nyregion/12cnd-histories.html
If you continue to be interested in 9/11 oral histories, Columbia University's extensive project should not be missed.
Check it out at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/oral/sept11.html