Introduction: confronting mass atrocities in oral historical practice

This special issue of Oral History Forum d’histoire orale thus aims to
incite dialogue on these subjects by examining the conceptual, physical and
mental challenges of carrying out oral history work on grievous abuses of
human rights, and the attendant ethical and methodological dilemmas of
documenting individuals’ and communities’ experiences of mass atrocities and
their aftermath. The contributors explore the roles that oral historians and oral
history practitioners can play during and after mass atrocities and evaluate their efforts to adapt oral history methodologies and practices in culturally
appropriate and ethical ways. The articles in this special issue have a geographical focus on two regions of the world: Indonesia and the Great Lakes region of Africa.