Kyrgyz project listens to “ancestors’ whispers” to restore nation’s memory 

A project in Kyrgyzstan aims to write the country’s alternative history as it is remembered and told by the nation’s elderly. 

The Esimde (I Remember) project’s head, Elmira Nogoybayeva, tells Exclusive.kz that it is a memory study — particularly in demand in post-Soviet countries where the collective memory was suppressed for a long time in favour of the official history. 

Nogoybayeva launched the project eight years ago “as an attempt to understand what is happening to our people, the world, and how everything is interconnected”. 

“It is a way to know more about my people, about [Soviet-era] dissidents, repression, deportations and the [anti-tsarist] 1916 uprising. 

“History is often a customised product – an interpretation that suits the authorities, and mainly focused on leaders, military commanders and politicians. In memory studies the most valuable thing is stories of ordinary people, our grandmothers and grandfathers. 

“In the Soviet period, scholars did not appreciate oral history, but we know that for the Kyrgyz and the Kazakhs, it used to be the main way of passing on information,” Nogoybayeva said. 

She said that collecting people’s stories was “just the first step”.  

“The next step is to process those historical periods. It is like a person’s work on their mental traumas.  

“When a nation knows about itself not just some kind of pompous version of its history, but also about its tragedies and losses, and if it processes and accepts them, draws lessons, it can become more humane towards itself, first of all, and to the rest of the world,” Nogoybayeva said. 

She continued that the process of “remembering” their own true histories – “a forbidden and painful experience” — was started by Central Asians in the perestroika period. 

“A huge amount of information came to the surface, resulting to an incredible mental shift. I am sure it caused the Zheltoqsan [uprising in Kazakhstan in 1986], and it triggered the peaceful march in Frunze [Bishkek] when people walked all the way to the glaciers to re-bury those killed in [the anti-colonial uprising of] 1916. 

“In Central Asia, the process was very much catalysed by Olzhas Suleymenov’s “Az and I” and Chingiz Aitmatov’s story about Mankurt(s) [people who forget their past]. We’ve even held a conference called  “Mankurt’s dreams”, trying to understand if the Mankurt can ever wake up. 

Then, after independence, as Central Asian governments got down to establishing their own power bases, the process slowed.  

Another hindering factor was Russia’s reversing its democratic course.  

“In 2014 Russia completely turned away from openness, freedom and started to shut down public memory. And the ancestors’ voices were again reduced to a whisper. The attitude to the past became ambiguous again. In Russia they are reviving Stalin and Dzerzhinsky. It has again become dangerous to talk about the deportations, famines and political repressions,” Nogoybayeva said. 

Nogoybayeva said that decolonisation could serve as an important unifying factor. 

“We are getting atomised. We lack a common language, common values and rules. It allows us to be divided and ruled.  

“Self-identity, decolonisation and acceptance are part of one process. It means saying [to the former colonial power]: yes, you still have influence on us, but you cannot manipulate us anymore by using the old [colonial] language; yes, you have been plundering our resources, but you can’t do that any longer; yes, I have my own language and I want to speak it. 

“We have to develop a language of our own values. It is the cornerstone of decolonisation.  

“It is our peoples’ aspiration, after a long silence, and after nearly losing our own languages, and part of culture, to restore everything and begin to talk to everyone else as equals,” she added. 

You can learn more about the project here.  

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