Six authors in search of justice: engaging with political transitions

Abstract

In 2012 Michael Newman sat down to write an academic study of transitional justice. That involved an assessment of judicial and non-judicial measures that may be taken to address legacies of human rights abuses in countries moving from repressive regimes to more democratic societies. These measures may involve different mixes of retribution, criminal procedures, projects of memory and recognition and reconciliation. The mix depends on the history of the country, the nature of the overthrow and who is in power. The words did not flow, he says, until he began to study the works of Albert Camus written after the Second World War, as France came to terms with the aftermath of the German occupation. There Camus struggles with finding the right response to German atrocities and French collaboration. Newman went on to read the work of Nadine Gordimer from South Africa, whose subtle novels illustrate the effect on individuals, first of living in the socially unjust world of apartheid and then in the unsettling transition from apartheid to African majority rule. How should past wrongs be recognized and how far should retribution go?