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Research into Reconciliation and Forgiveness at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Homi Bhabha’s “Architecture of the New”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2015

Antjie Krog
Antjie Krog*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Arts University of the Western Capeakrog@uwc.ac.za.
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Abstract

The central argument of this article is that within the discourse around the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), many scholars have insufficiently applied the concept of an indigenous African worldview in their analysis of the TRC’s work, leading them at times to describe the process as coerced, contradictory, and politically manipulated. Using the different stages of my research as well as the different texts that “lit up” every phase, I argue that through a focus on language and translation, the pervasiveness of a particular worldview of interconnectedness can be traced that enabled the commission to execute its mandate creatively and without incidences of revenge. The acknowledgement of an indigenous interconnectedness has wide implications for the concept of transitional justice as it rejuvenates the main concepts of healing, amnesty, and reconciliation. As a journalist who reported on the daily activities of the commission, I move in this piece between the different epistemic communities of journalism, writing, and academia in order to understand the way in which language and its underlying epistemology provides an important access route to understanding the workings of the TRC and the testimonies provided by witnesses.

Résumé

Le principal argument veut que, dans le discours sur la Commission sud-africaine de vérité et de réconciliation, les érudits ont négligé d’analyser les travaux de la commission à la lumière de la vision africaine indigène du monde, de sorte qu’ils ont parfois décrit la procédure comme étant coercitive, contradictoire et politiquement manipulée. Aux diverses étapes de ma recherche et à l’aide des divers textes qui ont « éclairé » chacune des étapes, j’avance que, en mettant l’accent sur la langue et la traduction, l’on peut déceler l’omniprésence de la vision indigène d’interrelation qui a permis à la commission de s’acquitter de son mandat de façon créative en évitant le phénomène de vengeance. La reconnaissance de la vision indigène de l’interrelation a de profondes répercussions sur le concept de justice transitionnelle car elle permet de redonner vie aux concepts de la guérison, de l’amnistie et de la réconciliation.

Keywords

South African Truth and Reconciliation CommissionUbuntuinterconnectednessAfrican philosophyrestorative justiceCommission sud-africaine de vérité et de réconciliationUbuntuinterrelationphilosophie africainejustice réparatrice
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 30 , Special Issue 2: Ways of Knowing Atrocity / Modes de connaissances de l’atrocité , August 2015 , pp. 203 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association / Association Canadienne Droit et Société 2015 

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References

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2 Toit, Andre du, “The Moral Foundations of the South African TRC: Truth as Acknowledgment and Justice as Recognition,” in Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions, edited by Rotberg, Robert I. and Thompson, Dennis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000)Google Scholar; Bloomfield, David, Barnes, Teresa, and Huyse, Luc, eds., Reconciliation after Violent Conflict: A Handbook (Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2003).Google Scholar

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11 Ibid., 229.

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13 Ibid., 2.

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26 Koos Oosthuysen learned to read and write in the isiXhosa medium mission school at Isilimela and went on to achieve a BA honors degree in philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch, a masters degree in theology at Yale University in the United States and a PhD in African languages at Rhodes University. He wrote a graded grammar of isiXhosa, was involved in the translation of hymns, and the 1996 isiXhosa Bible. In a private correspondence with me, he explains in Afrikaans the difference in isiXhosa between the words “reconciliation” and “forgiveness”: noxelelwaniso is die isiXhosa weergawe van “en versoening.” Die no- bestaan uit die konnektiewe na- (en, saam met) plus die voorvoegsel u- van uxolelwaniso (versoening), wat soos die naamwoord uxolo (vrede; ekskuus!) afgelei is van die werkwoord ukuxola (om tevrede te raak), wat meerendeels in die voltooide tyd [-xolile (is tevrede)] en die applikatiewe vorm ukuxolela (om te vergewe) gebruik word. Wanneer ukuxolela nou verder met die die passiewe verlengingsmorfeem -w-, die resiprokale verlengingsmorfeem -an- en die kousatiewe verlengingsmorfeem -is- verleng word, gee dit die werkwoord ukuxolelwanisa (om te veroorsaak dat mekaar vergewe word, m.a.w. om te versoen. Hiervan word die naamwoord uxolelwaniso (versoening) afgelei.

27 Hewstone, Miles, Cairns, E., Voci, A., McLernon, F., Niens, U., Noor, M., “Intergroup Forgiveness and Guilt in Northern Ireland: Social Psychological Dimensions of ‘the Troubles,’” in Collective Guilt: International Perspectives, edited by Branscombe, Nyla R. and Doosje, Bertjan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).Google Scholar

28 Krog, Country of My Skull, (Parktown: Random House), 109.

29 Allen, John, Rabble-Rouser for Peace (Johannesburg: Rider Books, 2007), 342.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., 343.

31 For an examination of how Ubuntu influenced Desmond Tutu’s Christianity, please see Battle, Michael, Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu (Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 1997).Google Scholar

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35 Wilson, The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-Apartheid State, 153.

36 It is indicative that the German version of restoration has often come to the fore during the TRC process when reparations were discussed, perhaps, partly, because there does not exist a synonym in Afrikaans or English for “repairing” in the sense of making things “good” again. In this way, again, “newness” emerged: it is not simply a question of restoring, but restoring to the extent that things for the victim are again “good.”