National Reconciliation through Public Hearings

Full Potential ◽

The Public ◽

Public Hearings ◽

New Space ◽

And Gender ◽

National Reconciliation ◽

Selection Of

This chapter examines how the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (PTRC) turned from policy suggestions to the symbolic realm of public hearings as part of its efforts to construct and implement a new space of horizontal communication to facilitate the national reconciliation process. The PTRC public hearings aimed to build a new national narrative by giving voice to the victims/testimoniantes and educating the public on lesser-known aspects of the conflict utilizing a human rights framework. This chapter analyzes how procedural and representational issues hindered the full potential of the PTRC public hearings, including the selection of testimonies and the testimonies themselves that demonstrate the restricted qualities of both victimhood and motherhood. It also considers the politics of reception that characterizes the hearings and concludes by suggesting that careful attention to the workings of language, temporality, and gender representation could aid in overcoming the discrimination that impedes democracy and social harmony.

Reconciliation in the Public Domain

International Journal of Public Theology ◽

10.1163/15697320-12341414 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 412-427 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eddy Van der Borght

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Public Domain ◽

Religious Symbol ◽

The Public ◽

The Church ◽

The Way

Reconciliation shifted in South Africa during the transition from being a contested idea in the church struggle to a notion proposed and rejected by the fighting parties and finally embraced by the two main political protagonists when they reached an agreement on the transition to a democratic order. This article analyses the layered meaning of the reconciliation concept within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. On the basis of this description the questions that will be explored are whether reconciliation functioned as a religious symbol at the trc, and if so, in what way. In the conclusion, the way the concept of reconciliation itself was transformed due to the role it played in the transition in South Africa will be summarized and the consequences for theological research will be indicated.

‘I Was Those Thousands!’: Memory, Identity and Space in John Kani'sNothing But the Truth

Theatre Research International ◽

10.1017/s0307883306002513 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 68-84

Author(s):

SHANE GRAHAM

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Space ◽

The Public ◽

Spatial Configurations

John Kani'sNothing But the Truth(2002) dramatizes South Africa's collective confrontation with its traumatic past – played out on the public stage most visibly in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings – through the personal situation of Sipho Makhaya and his family. This essay analyses the obstacles Sipho and his daughter face in their attempts to negotiate new identities within the shifting social and physical geographies of post-apartheid South Africa. Identities in the apartheid era were rooted in specific places and socio-spatial configurations that are now being radically and rapidly transformed; Kani's play implies that this transitional moment in the country's history provides the opportunity to rewrite the codes that determine the ways that space is produced and used, and in the process to alter the ways that people form identities and memories in relation to both social space and other people.

Speech and SilenceWomen's Testimony in the First Five Weeks of Public Hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Remaking a WorldViolence, Social Suffering, and Recovery ◽

10.1525/california/9780520223295.003.0007 ◽

2001 ◽

pp. 250-280

Author(s):

Veena Das ◽

Arthur Kleinman ◽

Margaret Lock ◽

Mamphela Ramphele ◽

Pamela Reynolds

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

The South ◽

Public Hearings

Reconciliation in Somalia

War and Peace in Somalia ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190947910.003.0015 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 179-190

Author(s):

Aden Abdi ◽

Alexander Ramsbotham

Keyword(s):

Federal Government ◽

State Building ◽

Member States ◽

National Reconciliation

Rivalries and tensions in Somalia exist on several levels: within and between Federal Member States (FMS); between FMS and the Federal Government of Somalia; and in the wider region. This chapter argues that reconciliation should be incorporated into all reform and state-building efforts, including initiatives that relate to decentralization, federalism, and the constitution. A comprehensive and inclusive framework for national reconciliation should be developed. Within this framework, there should be mechanisms to hold leaders accountable, including for past crimes, for which a truth and reconciliation commission should be established. The application of xeer has helped build peace in Somaliland and could play an important role in promoting national reconciliation.

Ominous Inevitabilities: Reflecting on South Africa's Post-Transition Aporia in Achmat Dangor's Bitter Fruit

Africa Spectrum ◽

10.1177/000203971304800201 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 3-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Aghogho Akpome

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

The Novel ◽

One Dimensional ◽

National Reconciliation ◽

Reconciliation Project ◽

Bitter Fruit

Achmat Dangor's novel Bitter Fruit (2001), nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 2004, is one of several important works of fiction that comment on the imperfections of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), offering a polemical critique of South Africa's on-going transition. In this article, I examine two significant ways in which Dangor's novel questions the work of the TRC. First, I posit that the story represents the TRC's model of transitional justice as being too determined by a “forgive and forget” approach that is inadequate as a means of providing reconciliation and thus fundamentally flawed. Second, I argue that, overall, the novel depicts the national reconciliation project as a mission that has in a way resulted in the appropriation of justice from – instead of its delivery to – some victims of Apartheid-era crimes. The aim of this article is not to present Dangor's fictional text as a one-dimensional reflection of complex social realities, but rather to foreground the practical and imaginative means that his inspired realist narrative offers for dealing with the aftermath of the massive social injustices perpetrated in South Africa during the Apartheid era.

Speech and Silence: Women's Testimony in the First Five Weeks of Public Hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Remaking a World ◽

10.1525/9780520924857-008 ◽

2001 ◽

pp. 250-280

Author(s):

Fiona C. Ross

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

The South ◽

Public Hearings

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and gender: The Testimony of Mrs Konile revisited

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies ◽

10.4102/hts.v73i3.4572 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 73 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Sandiswa L. Kobe

Keyword(s):

Black Woman ◽

Cultural Background ◽

African Women ◽

Specific Reference ◽

Security Forces ◽

And Gender

This article draws on a well-known narration of the Gugulethu Seven incident from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) proceedings with specific reference to testimonies of the mothers of the Gugulethu Seven. The article focuses on Mrs Konile’s testimony as a case study: Testimony of a black woman whose son was murdered by the apartheid government’s security forces. During the TRC hearings, Mrs Konile ‘failed’ to effectively narrate her story, which resulted in her testimony being dismissed as being incoherent. This article examines the underlying attributes of Mrs Konile’s testimony and revisits why she was considered ‘incapable’ of articulating her experience in a convincing manner. The analysis aims to acknowledge, identify and give insights about this woman’s testimony from an African women theologian viewpoint (specifically with references to the Isixhosa religious cultural background).

Media Practices and Painful Pasts: The Public Testimonial in Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Media International Australia ◽

10.1177/1329878x1314900114 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 149 (1) ◽

pp. 128-138 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Miranda J. Brady

Keyword(s):

First Nations ◽

Historical Record ◽

Aboriginal Peoples ◽

The Public ◽

Majority Culture ◽

Aboriginal Children ◽

Media Practices

From the 1870s through the 1990s, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were enrolled in government-funded, church-run Indian Residential Schools (IRS) in Canada. The schools reflected policies aimed at assimilating Aboriginal peoples into majority culture. Many Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their homes and suffered physical, sexual and psychological abuses. As part of its Mandate, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) collects testimonials from residential school survivors in various mediated forms to create a historical record. This article explores the TRC's public statement-gathering process and the ways in which media practices shape and guide testimonials. It argues that the TRC encourages particular survivor narratives as it signals to speakers that they should anticipate the norms and uses of media and narrative guidelines. However, there is a layer of meta-narrative common in TRC statements, suggesting resistance to and subversion of the process. This article considers the nuances of First Nations testimonials against the backdrop of storytelling traditions.

Reconciliation and the secular

Social Compass ◽

10.1177/0037768619894510 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 67 (1) ◽

pp. 72-85

Author(s):

Carlos Colorado

Keyword(s):

Political Theory ◽

Charles Taylor ◽

Canadian Society ◽

Municipal Governments ◽

Political Actors ◽

The Public ◽

The Public Sphere

Using the lens of political theory, this article examines how the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) captures the ways in which Indigenous political actors operate in a spiritual key in the public sphere. It considers how the Calls to Action of the TRC – the implementation of which has received support from federal, provincial and municipal governments – imply a re-envisioning of Canadian society that cannot be accommodated within a rigidly ‘closed’ secularism, which sequesters ceremony and sacrality to the private sphere. The paper argues that the model of open secularism posited by Jocelyn Maclure and Charles Taylor, allows space for religion as a fundamental component of secular democratic order and participation, central to processes of Reconciliation in Canada.

Framing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Process in Canada: A Media Analysis of Settler Colonial Rhetoric and Colonial Denial, 2003-2016

Journal of Critical Race Inquiry ◽

10.24908/jcri.v7i2.13525 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 46-73

Author(s):

Laura Mudde

Keyword(s):

Public Discourse ◽

Residential Schools ◽

Media Analysis ◽

Colonial History ◽

The Public ◽

Dominant Narratives ◽

The Impact

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada helped to expose the trauma experienced by Indigenous peoples in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools (IRS), which were governed and run by government and church officials. In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for these residential schools. This apology was undermined, however, by a denial of colonial history by Canada at the G20 in 2009, revealing a rhetorical contradiction that is part of a public narrative of colonial denial. This paper examines the public discourse during and after the TRC process to understand the impact of negative discourses regarding the TRC and colonialism. This case study examines written content from five Canadian media platforms that covered the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and TRC process between 2003 and 2016. Drawing on concepts such as the white possessive, white rage, and white fragility, the aim of this paper is to unpack the cognitive dissonance of apology concurrent with the rhetoric of settler colonial denial. Findings from the discourse analysis substantiate the hypothesis that continued dominant narratives of settler colonialism align with representations of the TRC process. This limits the authentic potential for a formal apology to address the IRS legacy which perpetuates continued settler colonial realities in Canada.