It was the year of the coup in the Maldives, which took place in 1988, I was five. I remember being woken up by my brother in the middle of the night. He carried me out of my bedroom in a protective way. I remember hearing gunshots. All of my family (30 people) were sitting in a room in my parents’ house. My sister was putting a pillow on the phone which was ringing in attempt to silence it as there were men outside our house with guns.
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Last autumn we ran an experimental online public engagement series called 'earliest political memories'. We collected a total of 68 memories that were generously contributed by members of the public. You can read all the contributions here. The series caught the attention of our colleague Rachel O'Connell in the School of English who…
In "earliest political memories"
Mine is: "Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher!" I remember going to nursery school when I was older and being surprised there was still milk. Round about that time was also the news about Idi Amin in Uganda and I remember being absolutely terrified of him: he was like the bogeyman. I…
In "earliest political memories"
I grew up in former Yugoslavia. Tito, the socialist leader of the post WWII Yugoslavia, died on the 4th of May 1980. I was 7 years old at the time. While I would have already experienced many socialist events and customs prior to this day, his death is the one…
In "earliest political memories"