Rewriting Chad's History: Between Collective Memory and Narrative Manipulation
By Joe Le Mutant – Charilogone Editorial StaffA Controversial Initiative
While an effort to rewrite the nation's history is underway—led in particular by the Minister of Higher Education, Tom Erdimi—concerns are growing: that of a narrative calibrated to the benefit of a particular power or ideology. Can we seriously speak of rewriting if we have never truly accepted diversity, nor built a Republic based on citizenship rather than ethnicity or clan?
A Fractured Society, a Risk of a Distorted Narrative
Contemporary Chad remains structured by inherited affiliations: ethnic groups, tribes, lineages, and religions. These markers determine appointments, promotions, and access to resources. In such a context, any historical rewriting without safeguards can become an act of political legitimization, a selective erasure.
Playwright Wole Soyinka warns us: "Truth and power are antithetical." In other words, any story written by those in power risks being a lie.
A Plural Memory or Ideological Madness
Rejecting the diversity of memories opens the way to symbolic violence. Sony Labou Tansi, in L’Anté-peuple, wrote: “If life ceases to be sacred, all matter becomes madness.” An official, monolithic history is therefore a dangerous deviation—an intellectual and moral impoverishment of the national debate.
Requirements for an Honest Approach
Yes, rewriting history is possible—but only if a rigorous, independent, and participatory method is adopted. This commission should:
- Be independent of any political pressure;
- Include Chadian and international experts;
- Combine written, oral, and colonial archives with linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological approaches;
- Give voice to local communities, who must propose their own historical narrative.
Joseph Ki-Zerbo has demonstrated that only an interdisciplinary and critical approach can create a faithful and dignified narrative.
A memory to transform, not to mask
Rewriting Chad's history must neither mask the wounds nor validate the ruling power. It should:
- honor all memories;
- reconcile contradictions;
- consider the country's democratic future.
Without this, this project will be nothing more than an instrument of political amnesia. A people deprived of historical debate is a people sitting on a powder keg. Recounting the past, yes, but to build a future—not to confiscate it.
Images: Illustration
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