Spectres of Reparation in South Africa: Re-encountering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Jaco Barnard-Naude, "Spectres of Reparation in South Africa: Re-encountering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission "
English | ISBN: 1032268611 | 2023 | 244 pages | PDF | 4 MB
English | ISBN: 1032268611 | 2023 | 244 pages | PDF | 4 MB
This book argues that South Africa is haunted by the spectre of reparation. The failure of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to secure adequate reparation for the victims of colonisation and apartheid continues to drastically undermine the commission’s processes and legacy.
Investigating the TRC’s key processes of amnesty, archiving and forgiveness in turn, the book demonstrates that each process is fundamentally thwarted by the terminal lack of reparation. These multiple forms of the spectre of reparation haunt post-apartheid society in deeply traumatogenic ways. The book proposes a new ethic of "reparative citizenship" as a means of encountering the spectres of reparation in a productive and transformative manner, generating hope even in the face of the irreparable.
Read more