Commissioning the Past : The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Buur, Lars, Cherry, Janet, Bonner, Phil

ISBN 10: 1868143589 / ISBN 13: 9781868143580

Published by Wits University Press, 2002

Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 40066172-6

Synopsis:

South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the twenty-first of its kind. It was more ambitious in the scope of its enquiry, more transparent in the nature of its proceedings, and more highly charged, symbolically, than any that preceded it. Its public hearings of testimony from victims and perpetrators, drenched with emotion and drama, are what most people remember when they recall the TRC. Yet at the same time, there were parallel processes of documentation, data analysis, quasi-judicial shifting of evidence and writing up the results. This book engages more directly than any previous scholarship with the range of the TRC’s activities, with the kinds of truth it sought to construct, and with the various ways in which its “truths” were (necessarily) fractured, incomplete and selective. This is no shallow exercise in debunking. It yields penetrating and conceptually nuanced analyses. While many of the essays in Commissioning the Past are critical of the shortcomings of the Commission, they simultaneously demonstrate a deep awareness of the contradictory brief and difficult circumstances in which the TRC operated. The book takes academic understanding of the TRC onto a new plane.

About the Authors: Janet Cherry is a South African activist and academic. She is currently Professor of Development Studies at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. Her main areas of research are human rights, democratic participation, social and political history, gender and sustainable development

John Daniel was an activist, Professor of Political Science and most recently served as Academic Director of the programme in Social and Political Transformation of the School for International Training, Durban.

Piers Pigou is Crisis Group's senior consultant for Southern Africa.

Madeline Fullard is Head of the Missing Persons Task Team at the South African National Prosecuting Authority.

Lars Buur is based at the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde University.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Commissioning the Past : The Truth and ...
Publisher: Wits University Press
Publication Date: 2002
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good