Inhabiting disappearance: Sound memories of disappeared persons’ relatives in Colombia

Abstract

This article analyses some forms of inhabiting forced disappearance through the sound memories of five relatives of disappeared persons in Colombia. By means of a phenomenological analysis of audible forms of remembrance, the article explores how the relatives conjure and resist the catastrophe caused by disappearance and build ways of dealing with it in their everyday life. Results show that sound memories do not only manifest the absence/presence of the disappeared as they highlight their ambiguous condition, but also enable a present relationship with the loved ones despite their irrepresentable state, so the affections interwoven with them reappear to flood everyday life with calls for truth and justice.