The ‘culture wars’ that dominate public discourse in the UK turn, very often, on the significance accorded to histories of empire, slavery, and colonialism. What seems to be primarily of concern is the place of such histories in the telling of our national story. In this section, the articles explore different ways in which we could think about the relationship of the past with the present. Specifically, the articles collected here use the frame of ‘reparative histories’ as a potentially more effective way of engaging with complex and contested pasts. They address the idea of a reparatory sociology, colonial photography, representation and indigenous spaces, the gendering of reparative histories, and the need to rethink the welfare state from such a perspective.

In light of contemporary ecological challenges affecting our globe, it is increasingly acknowledged that indigenous knowledges are vital for local communities to understand, deal with, and respond to, climate change. Against this background, this article focuses on indigenous religious practices among the Nso’ of the Bamenda Grasslands of Cameroon. The article specifically analyses photographic representations of religious rituals that have shaped, and continue to help, the Nso’ people to accurately forecast climatic conditions and adapt/take precautions. This analysis demonstrates that through photographic narratives the rule of traditional religion in climate forecast can be valorised and exploited to add to the knowledge of climate challenge adaptation. The findings also demonstrate methodologically the role and importance of photographs as a medium for preserving collective and societal memories. (This article is published in the thematic collection ‘African ecologies: literary, cultural and religious perspectives’, edited by Adriaan van Klinken, Simon Manda, Damaris Parsitau and Abel Ugba.)