Journal articles: 'Justice and reconciliation in Africa'

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Gathogo, Julius. "Reconciliation Paradigm in the Post Colonial Africa: A Critical Analysis." Religion & Theology 19, no. 1-2 (2012): 74–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15743012-12341235.

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Abstract The article sets out to stir up the debate on reconciliation project in the post colonial Africa. As we strategise on ways and means of delivering the promise of reconstruction, there is need to pay more attention on the reconciliation for individual and society. In other words, does reconciliation mean blanket forgiveness or reparation? How can we ensure that those who looted Africa account for their misdeeds without further complicating the situation? The article is set on the premise that even though there are many paradigms in African theology of the twenty-first century, minor paradigms (refer to reconciliation, liberation, inculturation, market-theology and charismatic among others) and the dominant paradigm (refer to reconstruction) are both critical in the holistic rebuilding of the post colonial Africa. This said; it is imperative to critically assess reconciliation as an important paradigm – as it runs concurrently with other paradigms in Africa today. In particular, are the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions taking place in various countries of the tropical Africa, since Tutu’s South African sample of 1995, rooted in African cultural and religious heritage, and hence authentic? How can Africa go about her reconciliative phase?

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Koopman, Nico. "The Confession of Belhar 1986: A Guide for Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity." Journal of Reformed Theology 2, no. 1 (2008): 28–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156973108x272630.

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AbstractThis paper argues that the Confession of Belhar 1986 articulates the story of the Triune God's work of justice, reconciliation, and unity. That story redeems the human stories of injustice, alienation, and division in South Africa. It transforms us into people who make new stories of justice, reconciliation, and unity. The story of Belhar serves as a staff for justice, reconciliation, and unity. The cry for justice, reconciliation, and unity is first outlined (1). Thereafter, Belhar's understanding of justice as compassionate justice (2), reconciliation as the overcoming of alienation between humans and God, and as the overcoming of estrangement among human beings, and reconciliation as embrace (3), and unity as unity in proximity (4) is discussed. Last, an appeal is made for the continued confession and embodiment of justice, reconciliation, and unity in and through churches as spaces of hope (5).

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Ilo, Stan Chu. "The Second African Synod and the Challenges of Reconciliation, Justice, and Peace in Africa's Social Context: A Missional Theological Praxis for Transformation—Part 2." Missiology: An International Review 40, no. 3 (July 2012): 249–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182961204000303.

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This essay continues the discussion (started in “Part 1” in the April 2012 issue) on the proposals of the Second African Synod for reconciliation, justice, and peace in Africa. In this second part, the theme of reconciliation is developed, while I propose a missional theological praxis of transformation in Africa through African Christianity. The paper argues that this requires the departure from a triumphalistic theology that glories simply in Christian expansion in Africa to a deeper concern on how to bring about the fruits of the eschatological harvest of God's kingdom in the challenging and changing social contexts of African societies. The article proposes how to mine the riches of the new Pentecost currently swiping through Africa by valorizing the agency of African Christians and cultural traditions to bring about a better and more hopeful Africa.

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Boesak, A. "And Zaccheus remained in the tree: Reconciliation and justice and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Verbum et Ecclesia 29, no. 3 (November 17, 2008): 636–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v29i3.40.

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And Zaccheus remained in the tree: Reconciliation and Justice and the Truth and Reconciliation CommissionSouth Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has been praised the world over for its work and its example is being followed by many countries, in Africa especially. In South Africa the TRC has raised hopes and expectations that went beyond the TRC’s functionality within the framework of South Africa’s political settlement and its legal mandate given by Parliament. This contribution argues that there is growing disillusionment with the work of the TRC especially among black communities and that one of the major flaws of the TRC rests in its failure to link reconciliation with justice. Justice here must not be understood within the strict legal terms that some have applied to the work of the TRC but rather from within the expectations created by the TRC itself through its own insistence that its work should be seen as a Christian endeavour. This failure has a direct bearing on the situation South Africa finds itself in today, and the author argues that a return to an understanding of reconciliation that presupposes justice will help address one of the most critical issues in our social, political and theological discourse today.

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Meiring, P. G. J. "Leadership for reconciliation: A Truth and Reconciliation Commission perspective." Verbum et Ecclesia 23, no. 3 (August 7, 2002): 719–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v23i3.1235.

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As important as the need for authentic leadership in the fields of politics, economy and education in Africa may be, the continent is also in dire need of leadership for reconciliation. Against the backdrop of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the author – who served on the Commission – discusses five characteristics of leaders for reconciliation. Leaders need to be: leaders with a clear understanding of the issues at stake; leaders with respect for the truth; leaders with a sense of justice; leaders with a comprehension of the dynamics of forgiveness; and leaders with a firm commitment. The insights and experiences of both the chairperson of the TRC, Desmond Tutu, and the deputy chair, Alex Boraine, form the backbone of the article.

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Waghid, Yusef. "On the Possibility of Cultivating Justice through Teaching and Learning: An Argument for Civic Reconciliation in South Africa." Policy Futures in Education 3, no. 2 (June 2005): 132–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2005.3.2.2.

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In this article the author explores possibilities for cultivating justice with reference to teaching and learning in (South African) universities. It is argued that teachers and learners ought to become responsive, democratic and critical – they need to act justly in order to break with South Africa's apartheid legacy. The author discusses why readiness, deliberation and responsibility – acts of justice – ought to unfold in South African university classrooms and, more importantly, how each characteristic can potentially engender responsiveness, democracy and criticism respectively. Finally, some of the implications of justice through teaching and learning for civic reconciliation in South Africa are explored. The author shows how a responsive (compassionate), democratic (deliberative) and critical (restive) disposition on the part of individuals can offer hope for enhancing civic reconciliation after decades of apartheid rule.

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Murphy, Colleen. "Justice and Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa." Philosophical Papers 40, no. 1 (March 2011): 49–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/05568641.2011.560032.

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Volf, Miroslav. "The Social Meaning of Reconciliation." Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 54, no. 2 (April 2000): 158–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002096430005400205.

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Duncan, G. A. "Reconciliation through Church Union in post-Apartheid South Africa: The Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa." Verbum et Ecclesia 26, no. 1 (October 2, 2005): 35–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v26i1.212.

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This paper will argue that the union which brought the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa into being was based on an inadequate view of reconciliation in a Christian context. While lip service may have been paid to the authentic concept, flawed views have led to many misunderstandings concerning the mission and vision of the new church, and despite attempts at reformation and renewal, reconciliation as justice restored still evades the ethos of the young denomination.

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Kallinen, Timo. "Truth Commissions and the End of History." Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 35, no. 2 (March 3, 2023): 93–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.30676/jfas.127477.

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Transitional justice refers to a set of judicial initiatives that have been used in so-called post-conflict societies in transition from war to peace or from authoritarian rule to democracy. By the turn of the millennium, transitional justice had become a dominant global model and the list of countries that have undertaken some form of transitional justice is large and constantly growing. Truth commissions are a popular form of transitional justice. They are defined as investigative bodies that have been mandated by their sponsor governments to clarify controversial historical events and contribute to criminal justice efforts, reparations for victims, development of stable public institutions, and national reconciliation (Freeman 2006: 40–87). What is known to the general publicas a paradigmatic case of the truth commission is, of course, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa set up in 1995. It was only after the South African experience that the idea of a truth commission holding public, victim-centred hearings became the norm (ibid.: 24–25).

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Powell, Caroline, and Ntandoyenkosi Mlambo. "Space, Place and the Church: Fostering a Consciousness and a Theology of Spatial Justice in South African Churches." International Journal of Public Theology 16, no. 1 (March 22, 2022): 74–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15697320-01540030.

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Abstract Located within the wider questions that the South African church is asking about the relationship between reconciliation and restitution in post-apartheid South Africa, this article tracks the emergence of a movement of churches seeking to address the urban and rural land restitution question and puts it into conversation with the praxis of spatial justice. The authors introduce insight into the history of land and specifically church land in South Africa and explore what actions have been taken towards restitution of church-owned land and what this means for the development of a theology of spatial justice. Additionally, it includes an overview of South African churches’ declarations on land over the last thirty years and what has been done since these declarations. Finally, the authors will look at how these actions help develop a theology of spatial justice for a renewed praxis on land and space in South Africa.

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Little, David. "A Different Kind of Justice: Dealing with Human Rights Violations in Transitional Societies." Ethics & International Affairs 13 (March 1999): 65–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.1999.tb00327.x.

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In “transitional societies” like South Africa and Bosnia, which are currently moving from authoritarianism, and often violent repression, to democracy, questions arise about the appropriate way to deal with serious human rights offenders. Will a system of retributive justice bring about the healing and harmony necessary for peace and stability? Or, is “a different kind of justice” required, one explicitly aimed at reconciliation, and designed to repair and restore relations, and, perhaps, to forgive offenders rather than prosecute them? Are the systems mutually exclusive, or can they be combined in some way?In an effort to clarify terms and sharpen practical choices, this essay distinguishes between retributive and restorative justice and relates the distinction to constructive proposals concerning the ideas of forgiveness and reconciliation. The essay then applies the proposed framework to two recent efforts to cope with the problem: the truth and reconciliation commissions of South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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Abe, Toshihiro. "Reconciliation as Process or Catalyst: Understanding the Concept in a Post-conflict Society." Comparative Sociology 11, no. 6 (2012): 785–814. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15691330-12341246.

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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.

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Nalepa, Monika. "Overcoming Historical Injustices: Land Reconciliation in South Africa. By James L. Gibson." Perspectives on Politics 10, no. 2 (May 25, 2012): 429–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537592712000631.

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Overcoming Historical Injustices: Land Reconciliation in South Africa. By James L. Gibson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 328p. $92.00.All three of James Gibson's books on transitional justice in South Africa focus on showing that the politics of reconciliation with the Apartheid regime are less related to economic “self-interest” than to “sociotropic fairness.” On close examination, Gibson concludes that an individual's preferences about land reconciliation are not a direct function of egocentric instrumentalism. Rather, in his view, they are shaped by conceptions of whether one's group has been fairly treated.

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Cassin, Barbara. "“Removing the perpetuity of hatred”: on South Africa as a model example." International Review of the Red Cross 88, no. 862 (June 2006): 235–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1816383106000506.

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Based on the example of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, the author analyses the conditions necessary from a philosophical and philological perspective — even if they are never enough — to move from war to reconciliation, and thus to deal with hatred: a policy of remembrance, a policy of justice and a policy of speech.

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LenkaBula, Puleng. "JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: A SOUTH AFRICAN WOMAN'S PERSPECTIVE." International Review of Mission 94, no. 372 (January 2005): 103–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.2005.tb00489.x.

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O'Sullivan, Siobhan. "Land and justice in South Africa." Boolean: Snapshots of Doctoral Research at University College Cork, no. 2010 (January 1, 2010): 135–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.33178/boolean.2010.31.

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When Nelson Mandela took office on 10th May 1994 as South Africa’s first democratic president, he pledged that out of “an extraordinary human disaster” would come “a society of which all humanity will be proud”. Since then, South Africa has been praised for overcoming racial division and hatred in a peaceful manner while developing economic growth. This positive picture of post-apartheid South Africa has been compromised in recent years by rising crime, xenophobic violence, unemployment, and service-delivery protests. My research looks at how the new democracy has redistributed land and why less than 1% of the population still own the majority of the land. To understand the slow pace of land reform, I have examined the policies of the ANC, the polarised public debates on land reform, and the constraints on economic transformation. In order to achieve justice and ultimately reconciliation, problems with redistribution must be addressed. This requires not ...

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Nagel, Mechthild. "Ubuntu, Gender and Spirituality: Transformative Justice Considerations." Kalagatos 15, no. 2 (October 22, 2018): 56–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.23845/kgt.v15i2.718.

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The Ubuntu principle, popularized by Archbishop Desmond Tutu presiding over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the New South Africa, has potential to assist Western philosophical conceptions of forgiveness in envisioning transformative justice. Aspects of Ubuntu overlap with the Western feminist inspired ethic of care while departing from Western ethics with its emphasis on spirituality and communalism.

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Nelaeva, G., and N. Sidorova. "Transitional Justice in South Africa and Brazil: Introducing a Gendered Approach to Reconciliation." BRICS Law Journal 6, no. 2 (June 13, 2019): 82–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.21684/2412-2343-2019-6-2-82-107.

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The concept of transitional justice has been associated with the periods of political change when a country emerges from a war or turmoil and attempts to address the wrongdoings of the past. Among various instruments of transitional justice, truth commissions stand out as an example of a non-judicial form of addressing the crimes of the past. While their setup and operation can be criticized on different grounds, including excessive politization of hearings and the virtual impossibility of meaningfully assessing their impact, it has been widely acknowledged in the literature that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa can be regarded as a success story due to its relatively strong mandate and widespread coverage and resonance it had in South African society. We would like to compare this commission from the 1990s with a more recent example, the Brazilian National Truth Commission, so as to be able to address the question of incorporation of gendered aspects in transitional justice (including examination of sexual violence cases, representation of women in truth-telling bodies, etc.), since gender often remains an overlooked and silenced aspect in such initiatives. Gendered narratives of transitional justice often do not fit into the wider narratives of post-war reconciliation. A more general question addressed in this research is whether the lack of formal procedure in truth commissions facilitates or hinders examination of sexual crimes in transitional settings.

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Rombouts, Heidy. "Truth and reconciliation: Should the key notions be revised?: Experiences from South-Africa and Rwanda." Temida 5, no. 4 (2002): 33–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/tem0204033r.

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Both the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Gacaca tribunals, which started recently in Rwanda, are framed in terms of truth and reconciliation. But what does the truth mean? What does reconciliation mean? It can be argued that searching the truth has a very precise meaning - namely determining the details of what factually happened. And it is in this sense that most people understand the search for the truth. However it can be questioned whether this fact-finding is what the search for truth aims at in a context of transitional justice. .

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O'Mahony, David, Jonathan Doak, and Kerry Clamp. "The politics of youth justice reform in post-conflict societies: mainstreaming restorative justice in Northern Ireland and South Africa." Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 63, no. 2 (March 5, 2020): 269–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v63i2.386.

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Criminal justice reform plays a pivotal role in helping to foster reconciliation and peace-building in postconflict societies. In the wake of their respective political transitions, both Northern Ireland and South Africa have formulated proposals for reform of their youth justice systems based upon restorative principles. This article analyses the attempts to roll out these reforms in both jurisdictions. It considers why new youth justice arrangements have largely been well received in Northern Ireland, yet have struggled to be implemented successfully in South Africa and reflects on possible lessons to be learnt in the context of postconflict transformations.

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Hovland, Ingie. "Macro/Micro Dynamics in South Africa: Why the Reconciliation Process Will Not Reduce Violence." Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 1, no. 2 (September 2003): 6–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15423166.2003.194812506437.

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The reconciliation process in South Africa has been hailed as an astounding example of a non-violent transition to democracy, and its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has subsequently served as the starting point for reflections on reconciliation, transitional justice and the possibility of truth commissions in other countries. This article suggests that it is necessary to examine South Africa's reconciliation process more critically, focusing on why it has not brought about a reduction in the high levels of violence. It is argued that the reconciliation process has failed in this respect - despite good intentions - because it has not managed to transform the macro/micro dynamic in South Africa, i.e. the interaction between macro-level divisions and micro-level tensions which have fed off each other throughout South Africa's history. Macro-level violence has included - and still includes - economic policies that generate wealth for a minority while perpetuating the production of poverty for the majority. Micro-level violence includes extremely high levels of violent incidents at an interpersonal and local level. The use of the concept ‘reconciliation’ in post-apartheid South Africa may in certain respects have served as opium for the people - opium that has enabled continued accommodation of the interaction between macro and micro-level violence in the country.

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Oelofsen, Rianna. "Afro-communitarian Implications for Justice and Reconciliation." Theoria 63, no. 146 (March 1, 2016): 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/th.2016.6314601.

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Abstract This article explores the relationship between the concepts of restorative justice, racial reconciliation and Afro-communitarianism, and how these concepts apply to the South African situation. A version of restorative justice which is necessary for the Afro-communitarian conception of reconciliation will be defended. The understanding of restorative justice defended includes aspects of both distributive and procedural justice.

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Dandala, M. "The role of the church in the birth and nurture of a new nation." Verbum et Ecclesia 22, no. 1 (August 11, 2001): 30–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v22i1.620.

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Bishop Mvume Dandala, in his inaugural lecture as honorary professor at the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, describes the challenges awaiting the churches in the new South Africa. He does it by defending five theses: (1) It takes strong visionary leadership to lay foundations for reconciliation; (2) Ground base support and initiatives are critical for the success of reconciliation; (3) Social transformation, fairness and justice must be understood as an intrinsic fabric of reconciliation; (4) Reconciliation is not possible where the contending factions do not have a common understanding of the truth; (5) A healthy memory of the past is essential for a reconciled/reconciling future.

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Maluleke, T. S. "Justice in post-apartheid South Africa: Towards a Theology of Restitution." Verbum et Ecclesia 29, no. 3 (November 17, 2008): 681–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v29i3.36.

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Justice in post-apartheid South Africa: Towards a Theology of RestitutionHaving dabbled with the metaphors of liberation, reconstruction and reconciliation, the time may have come for (South) African prophetic theology to seriously consider the metaphor of restitution. In this essay, the author outlines the contours of a theology of restitution. The starting point is the existing but mostly unspoken theologies for and against various forms of restitution. An exploration of the contours of a theology of restitution is conducted. In order to illustrate the tasks and challenges of a theology of restitution – the author refers to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. For him a credible theology of restitution is a theology capable of restoring Lazarus before not after he dies.

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Hamber, Brandon. "'Ere their story die': truth, justice and reconciliation in South Africa." Race & Class 44, no. 1 (July 1, 2002): 61–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306396802044001587.

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Hamber, Brandon. "‘Ere their Story Die’: Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa." Race & Class 44, no. 1 (July 2002): 61–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306396802441005.

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Meiring, P. G. J. "Bonhoeffer and costly reconciliation in South Africa – through the lens of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Verbum et Ecclesia 38, no. 3 (October 6, 2017): 18–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v38i3.1559.

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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’.

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Verwoerd, Wilhelm J. "Toward the Truth About the Trc: a Response To Key Moral Criticisms of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Religion and Theology 6, no. 3 (1999): 303–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157430199x00209.

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AbstractIn this article the 'genre' of the TRC Report is clarified in order to answer some of the criticisms of the TRC. It is argued that the TRC conceptualised its role as the promotion of restorative justice rather than retributive justice. Justice and reconciliation is served not by isolating perpetrators of gross human rights violations but by restoring human community. Different aspects of the effects of the TRC's work are considered, namely reconciliation, amnesty and forgiveness Justice-based and reconciliation-based criticisms of the TRC are answered.

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Dolamo, R. T. H. "Reconciliation and economic justice in South Africa: The role of the Church and Theology." Verbum et Ecclesia 22, no. 2 (August 11, 2001): 292–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v22i2.646.

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The Church as we understand it, is an alternative community to the State because it has been borne out of the single most important event of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (Pannenberg 1972:87). The Church is therefore an institution that does its theology from the christological perspective without doing violence to the other two persons of the Trinity. One important concept that needs to be revisited by the Church through its theology is that of reconciliation with regard to economic justice in South Africa. We have achieved democracy in April 1994, but economic justice will remain an elusive goal, if reconciliation is not related to South Africa's historical socio-economic imbalances. The Church by its nature, must remain a beacon of hope for those who are struggling from the underside and margins of society.

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Prabowo, Rian Adhivira, and Kukuh Budi Mulya. "Tawaran Model KKR Indonesia Dalam Penyelesaian Pelanggaran Ham Berat Masa Lalu Dengan Sejumlah Pengalaman Pembanding." JURNAL HUKUM, POLITIK DAN KEKUASAAN 2, no. 1 (December 15, 2022): 54–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.24167/jhpk.v2i1.5648.

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: How a nation contront it’s past is one of the topics on studies of transititonal justice. Since Constitutional Court nullified Indonesian TRC Law 27/2004, reconciliation in Indonesia has entered a status quo. This paper explores possibilities on regulating the future of Indonesian reconciliation law based on three points of departures: (i) the dynamics on regulating reconciliation in Indonesia, (ii) precedents from Constitutional Court’s decisions, and (iii) lesson learned from South Africa and Chile’s TRCs. Using normative legal approach, this paper proposes four reconciliation models: (i) legal policy with amnesy, (ii) legal policy without amnesty, (iii) political policy, and (iv) an alternative model with the formation of Reparation Commission. This paper concludes the last offered model as the least resort for fulfilling victims’ rights on reparation while anticipating future legal/political policy on reconciliation.

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Gumede, William. "How effective have African truth commissions been?" African Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law 2020 (2020): 192–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.47348/ayih/2020/a7.

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The study is a critical review of several African countries’ attempts to seek justice, truth and lasting peace after deadly conflict through the mechanisms of transitional justice, specifically through the establishment of truth and reconciliation commissions or equivalent structures. Outcomes for African commissions have been mixed. Some met with genuine success. Some were obviously ineffective, neither uncovering the truth, nor bringing justice to the victims or holding perpetrators accountable. The review will analyse why some African truth commissions have performed better, while others have been widely condemned as failures and missed opportunities. It will outline lessons for other African countries considering setting up truth commissions or related transitional justice mechanisms to tackle the legacies of a violent past, to bring justice, and to forge reconciliation and lasting peace.

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Gibson, James L. "Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation: Judging the Fairness of Amnesty in South Africa." American Journal of Political Science 46, no. 3 (July 2002): 540. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3088398.

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Healey, Joseph. "How Small Christian Communities Promote Reconciliation, Justice and Peace in Eastern Africa." Journal for Peace and Justice Studies 20, no. 2 (2010): 43–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/peacejustice201020219.

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Rojas, Hugo, Salvador Millaleo, and Miriam Shaftoe. "Transitional Justice in Established Democracies: Analysis of the Canadian, South African, and Chilean experiences." Latin American Legal Studies 10, no. 2 (2022): 470–533. http://dx.doi.org/10.15691/0719-9112vol10n2a9.

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In the last four decades, theories and mechanisms of transitional justice have been formulated and implemented in numerous countries, forming an interdisciplinary theoretical and practical corpus. This paper proposes to expand the scope of transitional justice so that it can be applied in stable democracies. The proposed reformulation could be useful to address structural injustices affecting indigenous peoples, that are a legacy of colonialism and assimilationist policies, and to address acts of state repression that constitute serious human rights violations. These reflections are formulated on the basis of three recent case studies: 1) from the Canadian experience, the Royal Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls are analyzed; 2) from South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Constituent Process and the Land Reform are discussed; and 3) from the Chilean case, the link between social unrest and transitional justice, as well as the Constituent Process, are explained.

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Sooka, Yasmin. "Dealing with the past and transitional justice: building peace through accountability." International Review of the Red Cross 88, no. 862 (June 2006): 311–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1816383106000543.

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Based on her experience as a member of the South African and the Sierra Leonean truth and reconciliation commissions, the author formulates guiding principles and looks at the circumstances in which a truth and reconciliation commission constitutes an appropriate instrument to deal with transitional justice issues. The author also identifies possible contributions that truth and reconciliation commissions can make during a period of transition.

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Botha, N. "Reconciliation as narrative: Witnessing against a too easy and a too difficult reconciliation." Verbum et Ecclesia 29, no. 3 (November 17, 2008): 656–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v29i3.35.

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Reconciliation as narrative: Witnessing against a too easy and a too difficult reconciliationAfter the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994 diverse paradigms on reconciliation have appeared on the scene. In this article these paradigms are not discredited so much for being downright unproductive, but they are found to be either too prescriptive as is the case with the TRC or too limited as is the case with the three paradigms of which mere sketches are offered.The main thrust of the article is a proposal on developing reconciliation as narrative in contradistinction to a dogmatic, technical approach to reconciliation as something to be organised, to be prescribed and engineered. The basic thesis of the article is that narrative can potentially create vast space for story-telling and for many more voices to be heard on the issue of reconciliation. The notion of narrative is advanced as a serious academic category and not an intellectual fad. A further issue is illustrating how issues like remembering, forgiveness and justice need to be brought into discourse with reconciliation.

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Smit, Dirkie, and Elna Mouton. "Shared Stories for the Future? Theological Reflections on Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa." Journal of Reformed Theology 2, no. 1 (2008): 40–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156973108x272649.

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AbstractFor South Africa, both the 20th and 21st centuries began with facing a painful past while searching for a shared future: the experiences of the war (1899-1902) between the colonial British Empire and the two Boer Republics, and the legacy of official apartheid (1948-1990), respectively. According to many, these histories are deeply inter-related in that the sufferings which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission faced were partly caused by the inadequate handling of the sufferings of the war. From a Christian perspective, focusing on stories of women, the essay considers three such issues; namely, questions of truth and suffering, guilt and responsibility, and reconciliation and justice—while reflecting on the tension between forgiving and forgetting.

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Aiken, Nevin T. "The distributive dimension in transitional justice: reassessing the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s ability to advance interracial reconciliation in South Africa." Journal of Contemporary African Studies 34, no. 2 (April 2, 2016): 190–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2016.1211395.

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Propst, Lisa, and Christopher C. Robinson. "Pandemic Fiction Meets Political Science: A Simulation for Teaching Restorative Justice." PS: Political Science & Politics 54, no. 2 (January 19, 2021): 340–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1049096520001626.

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ABSTRACTWe team teach an interdisciplinary political science and literature course titled “Violence and Reconciliation,” with case studies on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa and on debates about whether to develop a TRC in Northern Ireland. The course culminates in a two-week simulation in which students role play the experiences, strategies, and needs of victims, perpetrators, legal teams, government officials, and NGOs in the aftermath of a horrific event that has torn a society apart. We assessed the simulation through pre- and post-simulation writing exercises as well as observations of insights revealed by students during negotiations. We believe the simulation is an effective tool for helping students move from a scholarly engagement with the processes of restorative justice to employing them in response to hatred and violence. This article describes the simulation for use or adaptation in other courses.

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Nagy, Rosemary. "Violence, Amnesty and Transitional Law: “private” Acts and “public” Truth in South Africa." African Journal of Legal Studies 1, no. 1 (2004): 1–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/221097312x13397499735869.

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AbstractWhereas amnesty is generally associated with impunity and denial, in South Africa, amnesty was pulled into the reach of justice and reconciliation. This article assesses the extent to which South Africa's amnesty fulfilled these normative goals. It centers on the difficulty of differentiating between “private” acts and “political” crimes deserving of amnesty. It argues that the determination of political crimes obfuscated the full extent of apartheid violence and responsibility for it. Consequently, the amnesty process produced a truncated “truth” about apartheid violence that was insufficient to the task of overcoming the past. This is in part an intractable problem embedded in the conflicting tasks of transitional law. The lesson of hope that South Africa offers to other transitional nations is that amnesty should be wound into the promises of democracy without creating false expectations of reconciliation or simplistic truths about the past.

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Mpofu, William Jethro. "Thabo Mbeki’s Decolonial Idea of an African in the African Renaissance." Thinker 93, no. 4 (November 25, 2022): 36–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.36615/the_thinker.v93i4.2204.

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In this essay, I deploy a liberation philosophical perspective in order to understand Thabo Mbeki’s decolonial imagining of an African in the African Renaissance. It is my understanding that the African of the African Renaissance is one who has awakened to the task of undoing coloniality in the African postcolony. For instance, that an African has to declare that ‘I am an African’ in Africa, as Mbeki does, reflects the troubled and also troubling idea of being African in the African postcolony. It might seem that being human, and African in Africa, is an idea under question that must still be declared or defended. Whether one is an African or not in the postcolony is not a given, as colonialism succeeded in changing the being and belonging of Africans in Africa. Through colonialism, settlers became local in Africa and Africans became aliens in their own native territories. Colonialism, especially in its apartheid expression in South Africa,questioned the humanity of Black Africans, displaced them, and dispossessed them of their land. It is the uprooted, displaced, and dispossessed African represented in Mbeki who makes the remark that: ‘At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I shouldconcede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito.’ This dehumanised African is the subject who travels from the dystopia of colonialism to the utopia of reconciliation and a renaissance of Africa. This is the African who was caught in the tragic optimism of the liberation ‘dreamer’, but was later to concede that after the end of juridical colonialism, South Africa remained ‘two nations’ racially and socially. Even a globally celebrated democratic Constitution did not come close to solving the political and social equation, the paradox, where South Africaremains the ‘most unequal country in the world’. For the African of Mbeki’s representation and observation, the dream of liberation from colonialism collapsed into a nightmare of coloniality, and the starting point of an African renaissance is the decolonial effort todare dream and imagine another Africa and other Africans built from the ashes of the colonisers and the colonised. This essay is also an observation of the dilemma of a philosopher of liberation who was torn in between the necessity of justice for the victims of colonialism and the importance of reconciliation with the colonisers in the African postcolony.

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Ujomu, Philip Ogochukwu. "Africa’s Crisis of Social and Political Order and the Significance of Ubuntu Human Values for Peace and Development." Culture and Dialogue 8, no. 1 (May 19, 2020): 97–115. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/24683949-12340077.

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Abstract Social life across the African continent is largely threatened by intolerance, injustice, lack of equal opportunity, inequity in resource distribution, lack of compassion, unfair treatment and disrespect for others’ rights, as well as compromising intrusion of ethnicity, corruption, terrorism and religion into affairs of the state. So, Africans largely struggle with the political problem of building and sustaining societies and institutions that can be civil and compliant to the rule of law. There exists an African problem of political justice (obedience to constitutional and procedural law and order) and social justice (fair treatment and equal opportunities). Disorder and parochialism in a sociopolitical system are mainly instigated by inefficiency and over-politicization of major developmental institutions. We recommend some human values of Ubuntu such as mutual respect, cooperation for the common good and the pursuit of reconciliation as pillars for stable and viable political and social order across most parts of Africa.

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Stanley, Elizabeth. "Evaluating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Journal of Modern African Studies 39, no. 3 (September 2001): 525–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x01003706.

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Following a negotiated transition to democracy in South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established to deal with crimes of the past regime. Despite the detail of submissions and the length of the Final Report, this article highlights the partiality of truth recognised by the Commission. The usefulness of acknowledged truth to deal with South Africa's past is shown to have been neutralised by wider concerns of social and criminal justice. In detailing the governmental reticence to provide reparations, the judicial disregard to pursue prosecutions, and the dismissal of responsibility for apartheid at a wider social level, the author argues that opportunities for reconciliation and developmental change are limited. Against the problems of crime, violence and unresolved land issues, the potential of the TRC to build a ‘reconciliatory bridge’ is called into question. The truth offered by the Commission increasingly appears of limited value.

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Akpome, Aghogho. "Ominous Inevitabilities: Reflecting on South Africa's Post-Transition Aporia in Achmat Dangor's Bitter Fruit." Africa Spectrum 48, no. 2 (August 2013): 3–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000203971304800201.

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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.

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Yoon , Hyung Chul. "Christian Discourse of Justice and Reconciliation through the Lens of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC) of South Africa." Bible & Theology 83 (October 30, 2017): 83–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.17156/bt.83.04.

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Gibson, James L. "Response to Monika Nalepa's Review of Overcoming Historical Injustices: Land Reconciliation in South Africa." Perspectives on Politics 10, no. 2 (May 25, 2012): 431–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537592712000825.

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First, I would like to declare how much I appreciate the opportunity to engage in this dialogue with Monika Nalepa. As I have said, her work on lustration constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of transitional justice processes.

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ALLAIS, LUCY. "Restorative Justice, Retributive Justice, and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Philosophy & Public Affairs 39, no. 4 (September 2011): 331–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1088-4963.2012.01211.x.

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Drumbl, M. A. "Post-Genocide Justice in Rwanda." Journal of International Peacekeeping 22, no. 1-4 (April 8, 2020): 247–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18754112-0220104016.

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The Rwandan genocide triggered a vast number of criminal and quasi-criminal prosecutions. Rwanda therefore constitutes an example of a robust and rapid implementation of criminal accountability for atrocity. Rwanda, moreover, departed from other countries – such as South Africa – by eschewing a truth and reconciliation process as part of a transitional justice process. This chapter unpacks three levels of judicialization that promoted criminal responsibility for atrocity in Rwanda: the ICTR, specialized chambers of national courts, and gacaca proceedings. The ICTR indicted roughly 90 individuals, the national courts convicted in the area of 10,000 defendants (with some proceedings remaining ongoing), while approximately one million individuals proceeded through gacaca. The ICTR and gacaca proceedings have been concluded for several years already. This article summarizes these proceedings, discusses the outcomes and assesses their impact. In addition, this article examines how these three layers of judicialization interfaced with each other.

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Boesak, Allan A. "Deification, Demonization and Dispossession." International Journal of Public Theology 8, no. 4 (November 25, 2014): 420–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15697320-12341366.

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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.

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Journal articles on the topic 'Justice and reconciliation in Africa'

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