Symbolic Closure through Memory, Reparation and Revenge in post-Conflict Societies

Abstract

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)¹ has become the paradigmatic international model of how to ‘work through’ a violent past and in so doing, to ‘heal the nation’. Increasingly it is being argued that countries, which have undergone large-scale conflict such as Bosnia, Rwanda and Northern Ireland, need to set up similar truth commissions. A countrywide process of revealing and confirming past wrongs is said to facilitate a common and shared memory, and in so doing create a sense of unity and reconciliation. By having this shared memory of the past, and a common identity as a traumatised people, the country can, at least ideally, move on to a future in which the same mistakes will not be repeated.

We are meant to be a part of the process of the healing of our nation, of our people, all of us, since every South African has to some extent or other been traumatised. We are a wounded people … We all stand in need of healing. (Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his opening address to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission on 16 December 1995)