Understanding Victims’ Narratives as Actions of Social Disobedience in Transitional Justice Times: The Case of the Never Again Museum in Colombia

The visibility of victims’ narratives in post-conflict Colombia is central to understanding the turbulent past of the country, constructing social memory after the war, and supporting transitional justice mechanisms. This article argues the importance of understanding victims’ narratives as a social disobedience tool to develop inclusive processes of social memory after armed conflicts and to help divided societies to appropriate their past in an ongoing attempt to mould their future. Adopting a participative action research approach and analysing in detail the case of the Never Again Museum, the importance of this article lies in the idea that understanding the visibility of victims’ narratives as actions of social disobedience through social memory initiatives encourages collective remembrance and sociopolitical actions from nonofficial perspectives. It also supports the demand for truth and the construction of contested narratives in processes of transitional justice from a social disobedience angle. It establishes that the tension between victims’ narratives and perpetrators’ statements are a part of transitional justice scenarios in which the clash of diverse sets of values defines positions of power and recognition within contexts of transition.