This blog will probably be a little scatter-brained so please bear with me. Over the past few days we’ve be given A LOT of information about the history of Apartheid and the reasoning’s behind reconciliation and there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered. Looking at the topic of reconciliation, there are a few things that need to happen to achieve this goal. We discussed the need for truth, and not just the tangible truths, but also the intangible truths. Tangible truths include evidence from perhaps police records or historical records and intangible truths include emotions of victims and personal accounts of persecution. Another aspect is that perpetrators must remain accountable and should be punished in some way or another. Also, in order to progress as a society or a community there needs to be institutional reform and long-term development. This entails the notion of forgive, but don’t forget. A society must reconcile with the past, but it must also be able to look to the future because really the only way to look is forward. Dwelling on the past does not get anyone anywhere.
Here are some points, then, that I took from the discussions we’ve had.
1) The notion of a common history. South Africans have for the most part experienced a similar history, that of Apartheid. The experiences within the Apartheid history are, of course, different for each race or ethnicity. The experiences, though, date further back than Apartheid; they date back to the beginning of colonization. When comparing South Africa’s history with the U.S., they are both similar, but the U.S. has a different type of common history. Americans have the common history of not really having a common history. Americans are immigrants. We colonized Native American land in search for the new frontier. People from all over the world came to America to find a future. We all have the common history of being immigrants to a nation that was never rightfully ours to have. An interesting point that someone made during this discussion was the fact that we accept that we all have different histories, but then we move on with our lives. We don’t take the time to understand where that person comes from, to see whom they really are. I don’t think this necessarily helps the reconciliation process, but it hinders it. It hinders the process because forgiveness cannot come from ignorance.
2) Touring all of the museums thus far has shown that South Africa makes it a point to incorporate symbolism into its architecture. It is a way to remind people of the past. Reminders are not only represented in museums and monuments, but also in the everyday buildings erected in Cape Town. A lot of the architecture that stands today is from the colonial era. The architecture is beautiful, but it also reminds people of their history. It does not let them forget where they came from, which is one of the most important aspects of identity.
3) There are two issues with understanding a country’s past. Well, first, is the notion I brought up in number 1. The other two issues are this question of personal ignorance versus is the government at fault for our ignorance? Personal ignorance could be like voting during presidential elections, but not knowing what you are voting for. It could also be the example in number 1. There is also a large possibility that part of people’s ignorance does not even stem from the personal aspect. Many democratic governments have a law in place that allows the government to keep documents secret for a certain period of time. In South Africa it is thirty years. This country has been a transitional democracy for only sixteen years and those documents won’t go public for another fifteen years. There may be critical information within those secret documents that may help the process of reconciliation.
4) Moving on to the topic of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). First off, I’ve realized that a lot of perceptions I’ve had thus far about certain things have been wrong and the TRC is one of them. I do believe the TRC was a good institution to have after the Apartheid. The problem with the TRC, though, is that it only focuses on one aspect of the event, specifically the victim-perpetrator relationship, amnesty and reparations, but that isn’t even half of the story. South Africa has to look at not just the people involved, but also the institutions involved and the historical aspect, among other things. How can South Africa reconcile its past when it only looks at a small proportion of the entire historical event(s). On top of that, reconciliation may not have even truly worked within the TRC. I have doubts now about how truthful people were when presenting their stories. A perpetrator may ask a victim for forgiveness. First, the apology may not be sincere. Second, the victim has the choice to accept or reject. Because the TRC was televised, there was a lot of pressure on victims to forgive past wrongs. To me it seems that if the victim forgave the perpetrator, the forgiveness might not have been genuine. The victim may have said he/she forgave the perpetrator, but that does not mean that deep inside those feelings go away. An aspect of the TRC was to give victims closure, but it did not really help victims otherwise. They went for closure, but afterwards, all they got was nothing. They would return to their shacks in shantytowns and continue to live like they did during Apartheid. So what really were the benefits of the TRC? Finding out the truth does not necessarily pull people out of poverty. Overall, the benefit was for the country as a whole to be able to progress as a society, and South Africa has definitely come a long way in such a short amount of time. At the same time, individuals may still have grievances, which may not bode well for the country later down the road. A major point, I thought, that was brought up during the lecture was the fact that there is no consensus among different groups, which in turns makes it difficult to move on and look towards the future. This then brings me back to little knowledge of each other’s histories.
So my questions are: How does reconciliation benefit those that are in poverty or have lost everything? What can be done to make sure that those people benefit? Does this type of reconciliation really work? How do people get to a place of forgiveness?
No comments:
Post a Comment