scholarly journals Teaching Transitional Justice: Towards a Political and Personal Transformative Journey

10.5130/aag.f ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 65-75
Author(s):  
Gertrude Fester-Wicomb
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Political Prisoner ◽  
Personal Journey

In reflecting on my teaching experience of transitional justice I realised that it was not just an academic exercise but a deeply spiritual, political and personal journal for many of my students and me. In introducing myself as a South African former political prisoner there was what i felt some immediate empathy and rapport. In this chapter i will trace sharing new learnings, apprehension, pain, celebration and hope. Intimately encountering the comprehensive spirit of reconciliation in my class and Rwanda, it encouraged a personal journey conjuring up courage to communicate with my torturer/interrogator exploring possibilities of reconciliation.

Moral Subjectivity and Affective Deficit in the Transitional State

2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-82
Author(s):  
Christiaan Beyers
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
The State ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Land Claim ◽  
Transitional State ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
Political Resource ◽  
Legal Subjects ◽  
Land Restitution

In the context of transitional justice, how does the reinvented state come to be assumed as a social fact? South African land restitution interpellates victims of apartheid- and colonial-era forced removals as claimants, moral and legal subjects of a virtuous 'new' state. In the emotional narratives of loss and suffering called forth in land claim forms, the state is addressed as a subject capable of moral engagement. Claim forms also 'capture' affects related to the event of forced removals as an unstable political resource. However, within an ultimately legal and bureaucratic process, the desire for recognition is typically not reciprocated. Moreover, material settlements are indefinitely delayed due to political and institutional complications. The resulting disillusionment is counterweighed by persistent aspirations for state redress.

The Importance of Conversation in Transitional Justice: A Study of Land Restitution in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (04) ◽  
pp. 902-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Atuahene
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
The South ◽  
Communication Breakdowns ◽  
Land Restitution

One of the most replicated findings of the procedural justice literature is that people who receive unfavorable outcomes are more likely to believe that the process was nonetheless legitimate if they thought that it was fair. Using interviews of 150 people compensated through the South African land restitution program, this article examines whether these findings apply in the transitional justice context where it is often unclear who the winners and losers are. The question explored is: When all outcomes are unfavorable or incomplete, how do people make fairness assessments? The central observation was that the ability of respondents and land restitution commission officials to sustain a conversation with each other had the greatest effect on whether respondents believed that the land restitution process was fair. The study also contributes to the existing literature by exploring the institutional arrangements and resources necessary to facilitate communication and to overcome any communication breakdowns encountered.

scholarly journals The relationship between assessment and preparing BEd undergraduate students for the South African school context

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Nicole Imbrailo ◽  
Karen Steenekamp
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
South African ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
School Context ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
The South ◽  
Bachelor Of Education ◽  
Work Integrated Learning ◽  
Emotional Strain ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

The Bachelor of Education (BEd) undergraduate degree at a university in the Gauteng province, South Africa, aims to prepare pre-service teachers by using their experiences to expose them to the South African schooling context. This is done using a scaffolded process that includes formative assessment, summative assessment and Work-Integrated Learning (WIL, also known as teaching experience). This paper describes research findings based on a sequential mixed method design used within a constructivist paradigm to collect data on the role of assessment in pre-service teacher preparation. Eighty participants answered 16 questions on a nominal scale, and from this sample, 8 participants took part in semi-structured, one-on-one interviews. Based on the findings, it was concluded that all types of assessment were beneficial for pre-service teacher preparation as part of an assessment schedule – especially the case with WIL. However, WIL was criticised for not aligning with the current context and for a need to include the realities of paperwork, policies and systems as well as the emotional strain experienced by in-service teachers. The results suggest that by making WIL more authentic could impact pre-service teachers during their careers when deciding whether to remain in the profession.

Commissioning Truth and Reconciliation

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-131
Author(s):  
Claire Whitlinger
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Scientific

This chapter explores the relationship between the 2004 commemoration in Philadelphia, Mississippi and the Mississippi Truth Project, a state-wide project initially modelled after South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. After reviewing the history of transitional justice efforts in the United States and the social scientific literature on how civil society-based truth commissions emerge, the chapter demonstrates how the 2004 commemoration and subsequent trial of Edgar Ray Killen precipitated the formation of a state-wide truth commission when previous efforts had failed. In short, this research finds that the commemoration mobilized mnemonic activists; concentrated local, state, and global resources; broadened political opportunity; and shifted the political culture of the state. Despite these developments—and years of project planning—the Mississippi Truth Project changed course in 2009, abandoning a South African-style truth commission in favour of grassroots memory projects and oral history collection. The chapter thus sheds lights on the possibilities and perils of pursuing non-state truth commissions.

The Resilient Constitution

2021 ◽  
pp. 277-309
Author(s):  
David Dyzenhaus ◽  
Alma Diamond
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Extreme Pressure ◽  
The Face ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
The One

This chapter evaluates the so called 'transitional constitution' of South Africa and the 'permanent constitution' of Colombia. Through a comparative approach, it contends that constitutions are better understood in terms of their resilience rather than either being transitional or permanent, and that a 'resilient constitution' is the one capable of springing back even after being subjected to extreme pressure, as long as leaders maintain their commitment to governing within the limits of the law. In this sense, the differences between the Colombian transitional justice and the South African case do not stem primarily from the 'permanence' of its Constitution, but rather from the difficulties and tensions inherent to any transitional justice process, because it derives from some of the very rights it is designed to promote. The chapter then details how the jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court on transitional matters can be understood as having moved from an understanding of the Constitution as permanent, to one of resilience that does not represent a new power grabbed by the Court. Rather than that, it signals an understanding of the role of the Court in maintaining a constitutional order even in the face of existential threats to it.

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