Recentering Africa in International Relations by Marta Iñiguez de Heredia & Zubairu Wai

Author:Marta Iñiguez de Heredia & Zubairu Wai
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Conclusions and Futures

There is a generative paradox of the TRC that I have highlighted, which is how an entanglement between remembering and forgetting indexes the politics of reconciliation. Haunted by amnesia, individual testimonies of trauma and projections of atonement were marshaled by institutionalized corporate confessions and cathected to a collective national memory. Plunging deeper into functioning of the TRC, I outlined the way in which archivization is contingent upon an elemental violence of selection regarding what events enter the politicized domain of memorialization through the nexus of commencement and commandment. Inherently circumscribed by the narrow parameters of the archive, embodied experiences of trauma entered the institutional protocols of the TRC. While mindful of the juridical enactments that punctuated a limited and individualized conception of crimes against humanity, I suggest that these legal prescriptions were organized by the power of archivization and its attendant ecumenical registers of exculpation.

South Africa is said to have been healed and redeemed. South Africa is said to have moved cooperatively into a future characterized by clemency and forgiveness. Finally, South Africa, and the TRC in particular, has been propelled into the discourse of global politics as a unique post-conflict archetype for brokering stability and peace. Complicating these claims, I end with the reflections of Biko (1978), which remain relevant today when considering the entwinement between the past, present, and future in South Africa,There is always an interplay between the history of a people i.e. the past, and their faith in themselves and hopes for their future. We are aware of the terrible role played by our education and religion in creating amongst us a false understanding of ourselves. We must therefore work out schemes not only to correct this, but further to be our own authorities rather than wait to be interpreted by others. (52)

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