Spectres of Reparation in South Africa

Re-encountering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Jaco Barnard-Naude

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032268613
• eBook ISBN: 9781000929096
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book argues that South Africa is haunted by the spectre of reparation. The failure of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to secure adequate reparation for the victims of colonisation and apartheid continues to drastically undermine the commission's processes and legacy.

Investigating the TRC's key processes of amnesty, archiving and forgiveness in turn, the book demonstrates that each process is fundamentally thwarted by the terminal lack of reparation. These multiple forms of the spectre of reparation haunt post-apartheid society in deeply traumatogenic ways. The book proposes a new ethic of "reparative citizenship" as a means of encountering the spectres of reparation in a productive and transformative manner, generating hope even in the face of the irreparable.

This book will be an important read for South Africans interested in overcoming the impasses and injustices that haunt the country, but it will also be of interest to post-conflict transitional justice and politics researchers more broadly.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Ghost in the “Impossible Machine”: Reparation and the Biopolitics of Transition
• 3 On Apology and the Spectre of a Haunting Shame in the TRC’s Process
• 4 The Spectre of Reparation in the Archive: The TRC’s Work on the Role of Business During Apartheid and the Ongoing Demand for Reparation
• 5 The Spectre as Refusal: Reparation and Forgiveness in the Work of Mourning
• 6 Creative Haunting: Towards the Poetic Justice of Reparative Citizenship
• 7 Conclusion
• Index