METAPHORS, NARRATIVE AND ‘TRUTH’: SOUTH AFRICA'S TRC

Abstract

THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION OF the draft report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC) documents the infringement of human rights in apartheid South Africa through the testimony of both victims and perpetrators. The documentation of the arbitrary, shocking and violent nature of apartheid in all areas of South African life in government and the private sector, in urban and rural areas stands, according to the Report, in contradistinction to the 'lies and deception that were at the heart of apartheid'. Narrative truths (discussed below) imply an individual narrator and this fact alone guarantees that, in any future contemplation of the consequences of apartheid as a system, individual acts of oppression and individual oppressed people cannot be ignored. The fact that over 20,000 black people told their stories illustrates the value that was placed upon the opportunity to explore personal experiences in public as well as upon their altered relationship with the State. Archbishop Tutu, in his autobiographical book written out of his experiences of the TRC and of the indignities and absurdities of apartheid No Future Without Forgiveness puts the case against collective amnesia in the following way: 'Accepting that option would have victimised the victims of apartheid a second time round. It would have meant denying their experience, a vital part of their identity' (p. 32). Tutu's view on dealing with the past, influenced by the consequences of the Anglo-Boer War, is that 'the past, far from disappearing or lying down and being quiet, is embarrassingly persistent, and will return and haunt us unless it has been dealt with adequately' (p. 31). He also states that, as a result of the work