Selected Readings on Truth and Reconciliation

BRAID, M
"South Africa buries its past."
The Independent (October 23, 1996): 16.
While victims' families wait for justice, disputes over moral and criminal guilt for apartheid atrocities are testing South Africa's quest for reconciliation. Outlines the controversial acquittal of former Defence Minister Magnus Malan and others for the murder of 13 people in 1987. Reports that the Deputy Chairman of the TRC admits that truth, not justice, is the best that the new South Africa can offer.

BRAUDE, C
"The archbishop, the private detective and the angel of history: the production of South African public memory and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission."
Current Writing 8, no 2 (1996): 39-65.
Discusses the dangers facing the production of post-apartheid historical consciousness and knowledge as epitomised and ritualised by the TRC. Also compares aspects of public memory in the popular detective novels of Gillian Slovo and the more apparently historically rigorous modes of writing in academia and the media.

BROMLEY, S
"Survivor-offender mediation and its relevance in the South African context."
IMSSA Review no 22: (July 1997): 6-9.
In post-apartheid South Africa, people feel that they are not only victims, but more importantly, survivors of apartheid abuses. Victim-offender mediation (VOM) has provided a model for SOM, which is aimed also at those outside the ambit of the TRC. Emphasises common points with African customary law, conflict resolution, healing, reconciliation and methods of reparation. Legal, social and resource support to survivors is envisaged.

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENCE AND RECONCILIATION
Numerous papers on the TRC are available separately or as complete set.
Contact the Centre: tel (27)11-4035660, fax (27)11-3396785, e-mail csvr@wn.apc.org.

CHRISTIANS, T
"At the faultline - writers in the shadow of truth and reconciliation."
New Coin 32, no 2 (1996): 70-75.
Comments on a cooperative cultural venture aimed at engaging artists, writers, journalists and the public with issues surrounding a central theme of memory in its public and private forms.

DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES, RHODES UNIVERSITY
"The media and the TRC: is the truth in the telling or in the tale?"
Rhodes Journalism Review (May 1997).
Special edition on the media and the TRC. Follow-up to a workshop hosted by the Media Peace Centre last January in Cape Town attended by journalists and commissioners.

KROG, A
"Overwhelming trauma of the truth."
Weekly Mail & Guardian (December 24, 1996):
One of South Africa's foremost poets, who has covered the TRC for SABC Radio and various other media, writes powerfully of the nation's trauma, and her own distress, at learning the terrible relentless truth about South Africa's past.

MALULEKE, T S
"Truth, national unity and reconciliation in South Africa: aspects of the emerging theological agenda."
Missionalia 25, no 1 (1997): 59-86.
Outlines possible responses of Christian theology and the Church, not only to the TRC but to South African national unity. Considers clerics within the TRC not to be acting as Church representatives as the TRC is a judicial entity with a political rather than a spiritual or theological agenda. Maintains that priorities in theological discourse - racism, sexism and poverty - are not necessarily addressed by human rights campaigns.

MAMDANI, M
"Reconciliation without justice" (review of Kader Asmal's book, Reconciliation through Truth).
Southern African Political and Economic Monthly 10, no 6 (1997): 22-25.
Asmal rejects the 'Nuremberg trials approach' for the ideals of nation building and reconciliation. Mamdani argues that the moral fervour expressed is coupled with weak political analysis: apartheid and resistance encompass more than the armed struggle, and South Africa is part of the colonial history of Africa. Contrasts the demand for justice in Rwanda. Outlines limited reconciliation and social justice in post-Boer War redistribution.

MDA, L
"The truth about reconciliation."
Tribute (December 1996): 48-51, 69.
Expresses the opposing points of view on the TRC of a black and a white journalist.

QWELANE, J
"The truth will out."
Tribute (March 1997): 42-43, 45-47.
Reports on the TRC's success in solving some of apartheid's worst crimes. Discusses criticisms leveled at the TRC.

ROSS, F
"Existing in secret places: women's testimony in the first five weeks of public hearings of the TRC."
Paper presented at the Fault Lines Conference, Cape Town, July 1996.
In these Kimberley hearings men and women reported violations against men; with only six percent against women. Women's evidence took the form of mainly chronological narratives, with domestic roles. Themes were: attempts to maintain families; disruption of time and continuity, the closed ranks of men in the struggle. Suggests that we look for metaphor and performance in the narrative to probe the silence and fill the gaps between words.

SARKIN, J
"The trials and tribulations of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission."
South African Journal on Human Rights 12, no 4 (1996): 617-640.
In national catharsis justice must be served, but truth is as important in the transfer of power through negotiation. Cautions that the Act establishing the commission was not submitted to the Constitutional Court. Disregard of crucial legal issues may have long-term ramifications on TRC work. Lists other problems: poor publicity; costs; criticism from victims and alleged perpetrators; key terms such as 'truth' remaining undefined.

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION WEBSITE
http://www.truth.org.za.
The site includes background information, statements, press releases, news reports from SAPA (South Africa's independent news agency) recommended reading and reports. Register here to receive regular e-mail updates on hearings.

VERWOERD, W
"Continuing the discussion: reflections from within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission."
Current writing 8, no 2 (1996): 66-85.
Includes an appendix of strategic research themes of the TRC Research Department.

- compiled by Sally Schramm

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