Nostalgia for the future?

This article attempts to retrace the genealogy of prospective remembering and nostalgic futures in Ivorian nationalism. My units of analysis for periodising the different phases are national day celebrations, which often spark heated debates about what should be remembered or forgotten and how the past relates to the present and the future of the nation. The paper looks at the presentation of the future Ivorian nation and the imaginary of the nation as a poster child from the 1960s onwards, discusses alternative pasts and futures under the banner of ‘refondation’ since the eve of the multi-party system, concepts of renewal, and the ambiguity of commemorating Félix Houphouët-Boigny during the fiftieth and sixtieth anniversary of independence. Even though national day celebrations are largely orchestrated by the government, they still bear the potential of rupture and critique, for example through the performative reinterpretation of commemorative practices, performances of nostalgia where the official narrative wants to display rupture and renewal, or by the uncovering of unwanted genealogies, in cases where the official narrative highlights renewal.