Africa's Truth Commission Research Articles

Transitional Justice and Health Protection: Assessing the Contribution of International Criminal Proceedings and Truth Commissions in Africa

This paper explores the relationship between health protection in Africa and two transitional justice mechanisms: international criminal proceedings and truth commissions. It questions the contribution of these transitional justice mechanisms to health protection in Africa and argues that the contribution is both retrospective and prospective. On the one hand, these mechanisms help to identify the past failures of health protection and, on the other hand, they tend to ensure health protection for the future. However, there are gaps in this contribution because the work done by the two mechanisms does not fully address the broader problems of health protection in Africa.

Forging a New South Africa: Plagiarism, Ventriloquism and the ‘Black Voice’ in Antjie Krog's Country of My Skull

This article returns to the controversial topic of Krog's alleged plagiarisms in her highly acclaimed account of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Country of My Skull, and connects Krog's borrowings with a less-noted feature of that work, that is her heavy editing (arguably, fictionalisation) of some of the testimonies reproduced by her in that book. Most critics read the testimonies presented in Country of My Skull as faithful versions of those given at the hearings, edited only for punctuation and readability (as Krog insists was her method), and many critics offer commentary on the TRC based on Krog's rendering of it. Catherine M. Cole1 has noted, though, in her book Performing South Africa's Truth Commission, that the changes are more substantive. Tracing these alterations alongside Krog's obscuring of authorship via various borrowings, I argue that the two phenomena work in tandem to ‘forge’ an indigenous South African voice, which Krog casts as specifically ‘black’. These observations I frame within a larger argument about the pressures of national authorship, and transcultural accountability and literary honour. In so doing, I discuss previously un-noted borrowings by Krog – from the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and from the anthropologist Julian Pitt-Rivers.

Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of TransitionCatherine M.Cole (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009)

Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of TransitionCatherine M.Cole (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009)

Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of Transition. By Catherine M. Cole. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010; 264 pp. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paperback

<i>Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of Transition.</i> By Catherine M. Cole. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010; 264 pp. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paperback

Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of Transition. By Catherine M. Cole. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010; pp. 264, 10 illustrations. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of Transition. By Catherine M. Cole. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010; pp. 264, 10 illustrations. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of Transition (review)

Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of Transition (review)

Transitional Justice and Development: Partners for Sustainable Peace in Africa?

This article argues that transitional justice processes should strive to incorporate development considerations in their scope as a means of ensuring that distributive justice is achieved. Distributive injustices – social, political, economic or cultural rights violations – are often the root causes of conflict, but transitional justice processes often do not give sufficient attention to them. This has been the case in countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Through an examination of truth commissions in Africa, the article argues that without adequate acknowledgement of the conceptual and practical synergies between transitional justice and development, transitional justice will have limited remedial utility as a means for contributing to sustainable peace.

Leadership Effectiveness, Truth Commissions and Democratization in Africa

This paper explores the significance of transformational and political leadership in strengthening the capacities of truth commissions as effective mechanisms for democratization in transitional polities. First, the paper sets out to trace some of the conflicting goals and political compromises that attend to the establishment of truth commissions in Africa as well as lack of political will on the part of political leadership. The paper then identifies and discusses major problems that confront the institutionalization of truth commissions as veritable instruments of post-conflict transformation and democratic consolidation in the continent. Drawing insights from South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, the paper argues that national reconciliation processes in Africa are characterized by a paradigm shift from the primary concern of leadership choices to those of justice, truth-seeking, granting of amnesty and forgiveness. In conclusion, the paper stresses the role of transformative leadership as crucial to enhancing the capacities of truth commissions in consolidating democracy in post-conflict states.

Beyond the TRC: Truth, Power, and Representation in South Africa after Transition (Review of &lt;em&gt;The Era of Transitional Justice: The Aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and Beyond&lt;/em&gt;, by Paul Gready; &lt;em&gt;Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of Transition&lt;/em&gt;, by Catherine Cole; and &lt;em&gt;South African Literature after the Truth Commission: Mapping Loss&lt;/em&gt;, by Shane Graham)

Beyond the TRC: Truth, Power, and Representation in South Africa after Transition (Review of &lt;em&gt;The Era of Transitional Justice: The Aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and Beyond&lt;/em&gt;, by Paul Gready; &lt;em&gt;Performing South Africa's Truth Commission: Stages of Transition&lt;/em&gt;, by Catherine Cole; and &lt;em&gt;South African Literature after the Truth Commission: Mapping Loss&lt;/em&gt;, by Shane Graham)

““Only literature can perform the miracle of reconciliation””: A Resurrection of the Logos in South Africa's Truth Commission

““Only literature can perform the miracle of reconciliation””: A Resurrection of the Logos in South Africa's Truth Commission

The REwind Cantata

In this excerpt from her forthcoming study Stages of Transition: Performing South Africa's Truth Commission, Cole examines the creation and reception of REwind: A Cantata, a musical performance incorporating recorded testimony from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, along with the performativity of that ongoing process itself.

'They have built a legal system without punishment': reflections on the use of amnesty in the South African transition

The conditional amnesty process administered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was an innovative feature of the transition to democracy in South Africa, yet it remains relatively under-analysed in comparison with other aspects of the TRC’s work. Moreover, although the South African TRC has inspired a new generation of truth commissions in Africa and around the world, the amnesty process has never been repeated. This paper examines the context of the use of amnesty in South Africa and offers some critical reflections on the South African amnesty process, particularly in the context of the rise of international criminal law and the creation of the International Criminal Court. Noting that the demand for ‘amnesties for peace’ has not diminished, it argues that, although the South African amnesty process was in some respects flawed both in its conception and implementation, it merits consideration by other countries in transition and offers valuable lessons for the development of international legal policy.

Truth Commissions in Africa: the Non-Case of Namibia and the Emerging Case of Sierra Leone

Truth Commissions in Africa: the Non-Case of Namibia and the Emerging Case of Sierra Leone

South Africa's truth commission reveals bioweapons plot

cape town Various South African researchers were involved in a sinister but bizarre effort to develop biological and chemical weapons under the previous government.