The politics of truth and reconciliation in South Africa : legitimizing the post-apartheid state / Richard A. Wilson.

By:

Wilson, Richard, 1964-

Material type:

TextSeries: Cambridge studies in law and societyPublication details: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001.Description: xxi, 271 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cmISBN:

0521802199
9780521802192
0521001943
9780521001946
0511522290
9780511522291

Other title:

Legitimizing the post-apartheid state

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

LOC classification:

DT1974.2 .W66

Online resources:

Contents:

1. Human rights and nation-building -- 2. Technologies of truth : the TRC's truth-making machine -- 3. The politics of truth and human rights -- 4. Reconciliation through truth? -- 5. Reconciliation in society : religious values and procedural pragmatism -- 6. Vengeance, revenge and retribution -- 7. Reconciliation with a vengeance -- 8. Conclusions : human rights, reconciliation and retribution.

Review: "The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up to deal with the human rights violations of apartheid during the years 1960-1994. However, as Wilson shows, the TRC's restorative justice approach to healing the nation did not always serve the needs of communities at a local level. Based on extended anthropological fieldwork, this book illustrates the impact of the TRC in urban African communities in the Johannesburg area. While a religious constituency largely embraced the Commission's religious-redemptive language of reconciliation, Wilson argues that the TRC had little effect on popular ideas of justice as retribution. This provocative study deepens our understanding of post-apartheid South Africa and the use of human rights discourse. It ends on a call for more cautious and realistic expectations about what human rights institutions can achieve in democratizing countries."--Jacket.

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Holdings
Cover image	Item type	Current library	Home library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Materials specified	Vol info	URL	Copy number	Status	Notes	Date due	Barcode	Item holds	Item hold queue priority	Course reserves
	Books	Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College General stacks		Reference		DT1974.2 .W66 (Browse shelf(Opens below))				C.1	Available			2024-4570

Includes bibliographical references (pages 246-262) and index.

"The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up to deal with the human rights violations of apartheid during the years 1960-1994. However, as Wilson shows, the TRC's restorative justice approach to healing the nation did not always serve the needs of communities at a local level. Based on extended anthropological fieldwork, this book illustrates the impact of the TRC in urban African communities in the Johannesburg area. While a religious constituency largely embraced the Commission's religious-redemptive language of reconciliation, Wilson argues that the TRC had little effect on popular ideas of justice as retribution. This provocative study deepens our understanding of post-apartheid South Africa and the use of human rights discourse. It ends on a call for more cautious and realistic expectations about what human rights institutions can achieve in democratizing countries."--Jacket.

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