Abstract
The affirmative collective memory is composed of positive meanings and emotions that, as a result of memory, link a community. The purpose of this study was to know the affirmative memory of the Afro-Colombian community of La Balsa, Cauca, which lived through the armed conflict for ten years. It is a descriptive qualitative study that used the technique of individual interviews with 6 people and focal groups with 99 people. A content analysis was carried out. We find that the balseños give a decisive role to their affirmative memory, which exalts their ancestral and family origins, their cultural practices, ethno-education and vigorous processes of social organization, which gave them a new place as social agents. It is concluded that affirmative memory provides symbolic and emotional resources for the communities to invent forms of citizen resistance and recover from situations of violence, such as the case of the “Balseña” community.
Keywords:
Collective memory; Affirmative memory; Armed conflict; Afro-Colombian, Reparation