Deification, Demonization and Dispossession

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan A. Boesak
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Primary Obstacle ◽  
Reconciliation Project ◽  
Reconciliation Process

Many regard South Africa’s reconciliation process as a model for a search for peace in and among nations. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission played an admirable part in this. However, problems remain in continuing and completing this reconciliation project. For many the failure to secure social justice through reconciliation remains one challenge. At issue is also how South Africans deal with their fractured and painful past. This article revisits issues of culpability and responsibility by asking whether a primary obstacle towards reconciliation might be that South Africans, instead of taking personal and collective responsibility for reconciliation, have hidden behind two major and completely opposite South African figures: Nelson Mandela and Eugene De Kock. It is argued that the ‘deification’ of Mandela and the ‘demonization’ of De Kock pose an important obstacle for the acceptance of culpability and responsibility for addressing historic wrongs with a view to true reconciliation.

scholarly journals Taking responsibility for reconciliation: a Christian response to the legacy and challenges of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Barry
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Good News ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
To Come ◽  
Desmond Tutu

At the conclusion of the TRC, Desmond Tutu stated that the Commission’s task was to promote, not to achieve, reconci- liation. Reconciliation, he maintained, is the responsibility of all South Africans, and expressed the hope that the Christian churches would be in the forefront of this healing process.  This article explores how the Christian church can be in the forefront of binding up the wounds, facilitating the healing pro- cess, and living as a people and a sign of hope. The answers it seeks to offer fall under three interrelated themes, namely the church’s:  • spirituality of reconciliation; • ministry and mission of reconciliation; and • resources for its ministry and mission of reconciliation. Cultivating a spirituality of reconciliation would mean making reconciliation a lifestyle, rather than a series of strategies, pro- grammes or initiatives, yet remaining concrete, practical, mea- surable and accountable.   The church’s mission is primarily to proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom that is already here, but not yet fully here and therefore still to come. This proclamation is the message of reconciliation between God, others and the self, and anticipates the unity of all creation in Jesus Christ.   The resources given to the church to fulfil this apostolic ministry include prophecy, evangelism, pastoral care and teaching, as well as its liturgical and sacramental life, its ministry of pre- sence, its people and its commitment to social justice.

A Splintering and Shattering Activity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. McIvor
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Traumatic Events ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Reconciliation Process

This chapter examines the nettlesome politics of reconciliation from within the framework of public mourning developed over the preceding chapters. Like many interpreters of the politics of reconciliation, it focuses primarily on the South African experience. Not only has the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission become the most widely surveyed and scrutinized reconciliation process, it has also become exemplary for communities seeking an extrajudicial “rejoinder” to traumatic events in their past, such as Greensboro. South Africa's transition from apartheid rule in the 1990s is commonly seen as the paradigmatic case of how societies torn by deep and seemingly intractable conflicts can account for or in some respect come to terms with a violent past and all the ways in which the present has been shaped by that past.

Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Attributions of Blame and the Struggle over Apartheid

1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Gibson ◽  
Amanda Gouws
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New South ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Attributions Of Blame ◽  
Democratic Transformation ◽  
Reconciliation Process

In an effort to put its past firmly behind, the New South Africa created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document human rights abuses under apartheid and to grant amnesty to those confessing their nefarious deeds. South Africa's democratic experiment depends mightily upon whether truth does in fact bring about reconciliation. Consequently, we examine whether ordinary South Africans accept the theories of blame that underlie the truth and reconciliation process. Based on a formal experiment within a representative sample of South Africans, our results confirm some conventional hypotheses (e.g., leaders are judged more responsible for their deeds than followers), repudiate others (noble motives do little to exonerate violent actions), and modify still others (actors are judged by the severity of their action's consequences, although it matters little whether “combatants” or “civilians” were the victims). We conclude that the dark legacy of the apartheid past makes the consolidation of the democratic transformation problematical.

Rethinking the Self within an African Philosophical Paradigm

2021 ◽  
pp. 326-348
Author(s):  
Antjie Krog
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Self ◽  
News Story ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Current Affairs ◽  
Desmond Tutu ◽  
A Current

This chapter explores the interconnected-Self manifesting within African Philosophy. Philosopher Michael Onyebuchi Eze suggests that ‘humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual . . . Humanity is a quality we owe to each other. We create each other and need to sustain this otherness creation.’ A current affairs news story about the parole of an apartheid-assassin, a poem, as well as the analyses of various concepts hallmarking South Africa’s move into full democracy, are the lenses through which this interconnected-Self is viewed. The exploration is underpinned by three areas: the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, texts of the /Xam (First People) and various utterances by Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.

scholarly journals REMORSE AND REPENTANCE STRIPPED OF ITS VALIDITY. AMNESTY GRANTED BY THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION OF SOUTH AFRICA

2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Eugene Baron
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Full Disclosure ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Perpetrators And Victims ◽  
Reconciliation Process

During the South African amnesty process perpetrators would get amnesty if they could prove that there was a political motive for committing their actions, their deeds were proportionate, that they happened during and between the years 1960 and 1994, and if they gave full disclosure. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the following: the fact that remorse and repentance were not required in order for perpetrators to get amnesty, left the reconciliation process in a vacuum. The inclusion of remorse and repentance as a requirement for amnesty, would have established a true (not a cheap) forgiveness and a ‘thick’ reconciliation process between perpetrators and victims. Remorse and repentance would have requested an admission and regret of wrongdoing, followed by an act of repentance underwritten by acts of contrition. 

Reconciliation as Process or Catalyst: Understanding the Concept in a Post-conflict Society

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 785-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshihiro Abe
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Problematic Issue ◽  
Theoretical Frame ◽  
Reconciliation Project ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract While the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has brought various new issues in the study of post-conflict society and transitional justice, a problematic issue that remains is how we should understand the ideal of reconciliation. This paper first critically traces previous theoretical works on reconciliation policy in South Africa, particularly paying attention to the arguments in political philosophy that have been deployed to incorporate the post-TRC condition into a theoretical frame. This examination is followed by a discussion invoking René Girard’s notion of desire to capture the dilemma of people in a post-conflict society. Finally, the uniqueness and importance of the reconciliation project is inferred to have the possible function of affecting the collective relationships among former enemies.

scholarly journals Bonhoeffer and costly reconciliation in South Africa – through the lens of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-34
Author(s):  
P. G.J. Meiring
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Desmond Tutu

Dietrich Bonhoeffer never visited South Africa, and he probably did not know a great deal about the country. But the relevance of the German theologian for South Africa was never in doubt. In the struggle against apartheid his message and his theology served to guide theologians, church leaders as well as lay Christians alike. His life and his death served to inspire many during their darkest hours. Theologians, with John de Gruchy in the lead, studied his works extensively. Heroes from the struggle against apartheid, Beyers Naudé, Desmond Tutu and Steve Biko, among others, were hailed as latter-day Bonhoeffers. Nelson Mandela’s famous ‘Speech from the dock’ before his conviction and imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial was compared to Bonhoeffer’s essay on The structure of responsible life (1995). At ecumenical gatherings, his name and his teachings were often invoked, whenever protest was lodged against the injustices of apartheid. But it was especially in the aftermath of apartheid, when the very serious challenges of reconciliation and nation building, of healing and forgiveness, as well as of amnesty for perpetrators weighed against the demands of justice to the victims were at stake, that many turned to Bonhoeffer for guidance. The author who served with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the TRC, discusses the prerequisites for reconciliation in South Africa against the backdrop of the TRC experience, emphasising the real need for South Africans, following in the footsteps of Bonhoeffer, to look for ‘costly reconciliation’.

‘The Young Wind Once Was a Man’

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-392
Author(s):  
Antjie Krog
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Comic Strip ◽  
Just World ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
The One ◽  
Desmond Tutu

Twenty years ago, the democratic vocabulary of tolerance and forgiveness was powerfully introduced to South Africans, especially by President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Both their words and actions were later broadened during the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. However, what remains neglected in studies around the transition is what the underpinnings of the words by these two gentlemen were. This article makes a case that a radically different ontology, different to the one made available by the Christian religion, informed them, an ontology that has its roots in the work of the First People. Comparing the sense of self as it appears in indigenous /Xam texts to the sense of self which comfortably misinterpret Mandela’s words in some comic strip frames, the article underlines how important a new sense of self is in redefining concepts desiring a more just world.

scholarly journals De Zuid-Afrikaanse Waarheids- En Verzoeningscommissie als Modelvoor Conflictverzoening

Afrika Focus ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 5-31
Author(s):  
Annelies Verdoolaege
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
South African ◽  
New South ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South African Government ◽  
African Government ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a model for conflict resolution After the fall of apartheid in 1994, the new South African government got confronted with the necessity to deal with the crimes committed in the past. Apartheid had been a system of institutionalized discrimination by the white minority and this apartheid past could not be ignored when trying to build a unified and peaceful society. The question was how the apartheid atrocities could be dealt with in order for the majority of South Africans to be satisfied. A couple of possibilities were put forward, but the nation eventually opted for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This paper will try to provide some background to this phenomenon. Possible alternatives and the coming into existence of the Commission will be highlighted. The concrete proceedings of the TRC will be described and finally the positive and the negative aspects of the Commission will be reflected upon. The final aim is to find out whether the TRC could be seen as a successful and praiseworthy institution and whether it could be regarded as a model for other countries confronted with traumatic conflicts.

Using African Truth and Reconciliation Commission documentation for truth telling and reconciliation

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions ◽  
Reconciliation Process

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) are established to document violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in post-conflict societies. The intent is to excavate the truth to avoid political speculations and create an understanding of the nature of the conflict. The documentation hence results in a common narrative which aims to facilitate reconciliation to avoid regression to conflict. TRCs therefore do a tremendous job and create compound documentation that includes written statements, interviews, live public testimonies of witnesses and they also publish final reports based on the accumulated materials. At the end of their mission, TRCs recommend the optimal use of their documentation since it is of paramount importance to the reconciliation process. Despite this ambition, the TRCs’ documentation is often politicized and out of reach for the victims and the post-conflict societies at large. The TRCs’ documentation is instead poorly diffused into the post conflict societies and their findings are not effectively disseminated and used.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document