Meike de Goede (Historian)

The research of Meike focuses on the late colonial and early post-colonial period in French Equatorial Africa. She is particularly interested in the history of the rapport between the late colonial and early post-colonial state and the Matsouanist movement, a politico-religious movement founded on the ideas of André Matsoua (1899-1943), a prominent Congolese resistance leader. This history is characterized by (passive) resistance of a marginalized social group, violence, repression, in the context of a highly complex and ill-understood process leading to the independence of Congo-Brazzaville. The history of this movement, and the traumatic events its members have experienced, has subsequently been systematically silenced. Her research combines archival research with oral history and memory of witnesses and their descendants.