Seminar Blogs
“What Do We Need History For?” – Hymke Theunissen
On the 16th of December, I was not sitting in my living room and watching my laptop screen. I was not aware of the time or what I was going to make for dinner. Mentally, I was walking somewhere in Cardiff in 1919. I was surrounded by characters of a story formed by the voice of Mike Pearson. His words guided me through the city, as I followed the unfolding events of an enraged mob. Complemented by an abundance of photographs, maps, and drawings, Pearson reconstructed the story of the Cardiff Race Riots, a gruesome racist uproar that lasted four days.
Reliving such a historical event like this made me think of the role history plays in our lives. Nietzsche has dedicated a book to this subject, called On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life ([1874]1980). Unlike animals, who have no conception of the difference between today and yesterday, we are inherently historical beings. We can never escape our past. This includes not only our individual past but also the stories of the culture we belong to (Nietzsche [1874] 1980, 8). Living in Amsterdam, I can see the history of my country on a daily basis.
Nietzsche says that history should serve life ([1874] 1980, 14). This means that history should help us live in the present and make us think about the future. For how many great examples of integrity or bravery has the past given us that can inspire us today? Our history is vital to our existence as humans, it is a record of how we, as humanity, have produced our own being. Our lives are not determined by the hand of God, says Nietzsche, we each have our own task of existing (Nietzsche [1874] 1980, 1).
If we look at history to guide us in the present, does this mean that we are always existing in relation to history? Nietzsche says this is undoable. He emphasizes the importance of forgetting; sometimes we need to find bravery in disconnecting ourselves from history, and living unhistorically (Nietzsche [1874] 1980, 9).
We should differentiate between living historically and unhistorically; we should know when to remember and when to forget (Nietzsche [1874] 1980, 10).
Although the riots were a sad, messy and embarrassing moment, and forgetting it might seem like an alluring option, Nietzsche would argue that this does not guide us in living in the present ([1874] 1980).
These riots need to be remembered. Pearson’s performance of the story, as well as the digital graphic novel created by Kyle Legall in collaboration with Pearson, are an actualization of a past event (Legall 2020). It is told to us in the present tense as if it were happening today. This does not only serve as a monument, a way of remembering, but also directly links the past to our present. It serves life, in Nietzsche’s ([1874] 1980) words, because it lets us experience a historical moment from a contemporary perspective. Not only do we obtain knowledge about the past, but we also live through it.
By living through this moment in the present, its contemporary character becomes abundantly clear. Racism is not something of the past. The graphic novel warns us for its “language, including racial slurs, drawn from historical documents and accounts which may be offensive to a modern audience,” which they are, they are deeply offensive (Legall 2020). Unfortunately, they are not yet completely of the past.
References
- Legall, Kyle. 2020. “Cardiff 1919 Riots Redrawn.” Cardiff 1919. Accessed January 11, 2021. https://www.cardiff1919.wales/english
- Nietzsche, Friedrich. (1874) 1980. On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life. Translated by Peter Preuss. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
*Image credits: Free-Photos via Pixabay