Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth Reconcile a Divided Nation?

• Author: James L. Gibson
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716205282895
• Published date: 01 January 2006
• Date: 01 January 2006
• Subject Matter: Articles

10.1177/0002716205282895THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYOVERCOMING APARTHEID January603

Throughout the world, truth commissions are being

constructed under the hope that discovering the “truth”

about a country’s conflictual past will somehow contrib-

ute to “reconciliation.” Most such efforts point to South

Africa’sprocess as an exemplar of the powerful influence

of truth finding. But has truth actually contributed to

reconciliation in South Africa? No rigorous and system-

atic assessment of the truth and reconciliation process

has ever been conducted. This article investigates the

hypothesis that truth leads to reconciliation. Based on a

survey of thirty-seven hundred South Africans in 2001,

the author begins by giving both “truth” and “reconcilia-

tion” clear conceptual and operational meaning. The

author reports empirical evidence that the Truth and

Reconciliation Commission’s “truth” is fairly widely

accepted by South Africans of all races, that some degree

of reconciliation characterizes South Africa today, and

that the collective memory produced by the process

(“truth”) did indeed contribute to reconciliation. The

author then considers whether other divided countries

might be able to use a similar process to propel them-

selves toward a more peaceful and democratic future.

Keywords: democratization; collective memories;

conflict resolution; intergroup conflict;

political culture

Introduction

Perhaps no country in history has so directly

and thoroughly confronted its past in an effort to

shape its future as has South Africa. Working

from the explicit assumption that understanding

the past will contribute to a more peaceful and

democratic future, South Africa has attempted

to come to grips with its apartheid history

through its truth and reconciliation process.

This bold undertaking to mold the country’sfate

consumed much of the energy and many of the

resources of South Africa during the initial days

of its attempted transition to democracy.

The gargantuan task of addressing the past

has been under the supervision of South Africa’s

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Established in 1995, the TRC spent roughly five

82 ANNALS, AAPSS, 603, January 2006

DOI: 10.1177/0002716205282895

Overcoming

Apartheid:

Can Truth

Reconcile

a Divided

Nation?

By

JAMES L. GIBSON

years examining and documenting atrocities committed during the struggle over

apartheid. At one level, the TRC was extraordinarily successful: it held hundreds of

hearings, interviewed thousands of victims of apartheid, granted amnesty to nearly

a thousand human rights violators, and produced a massive multi-volume “Final

Report.”1In terms of uncovering detailed evidence of what happened under spe-

cific circumstances (as in exactly what happened to the “Cradock Four”), the TRC

seems effective as well.2In many respects, and according to most, South Africa’s

truth and reconciliation process appears to have been phenomenally successful.

Indeed, the world has acknowledged the success of South Africa’s experiment

through the numerous attempts to replicate its truth and reconciliation process in

other troubled areas of the globe. Truth commissions modeled on the South Afri-

can experience have proliferated, and one of the leaders of South Africa’sTRC has

created a major institute in New Yorkto assist countries in developing plans for rec-

onciliation in the world’s many festering hot spots. Perhaps the judgment that the

TRC succeeded is based on nothing more than the simple (and simplistic) observa-

tion that South Africa appears to have made a successful, relatively peaceful, and

quite unexpected transition from the apartheid dictatorship to a reasonably demo-

cratic and stable regime. Some surely attribute South Africa’s transformation to its

truth and reconciliation process. If a TRC “worked” in South Africa, perhaps it can

work elsewhere.

OVERCOMING APARTHEID 83

James L. Gibson is the Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government at Washington University in

St. Louis. He studies mass psychology and behavior and democratization in the United States,

Europe, and Africa. His research seeks to understand why ordinary people think the way they do

about political issues (especially political tolerance) and how such thinking translates into public

policy and democratic reform. He has published more than one hundred refereed articles, in a

wide range of national and international social-scientific journals, including all of the leading

political science journals. He has also published five books, with his Overcoming Intolerance in

South Africa: Experiments in Democratic Persuasion (with Amanda Gouws) published by Cam-

bridge University Press in 2003, and his Overcoming Apartheid: Can TruthReconcile a Divided

Nation? published by the Russell Sage Foundation in 2004. In addition to his continuing research

on democratization in Russia, he is currently working on a new study of the problem of historical

injustices and “land reconciliation” in South Africa.

NOTE: This article was originally published as James L. Gibson, “Overcoming Apartheid: Can

TruthReconcile a Divided Nation?” Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies 31, no. 2

(November 2004): 129-55. Reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis, http://

www.tandf.co.uk.This research has been supported by the Law and Social Sciences Program of

the National Science Foundation (SES 9906576). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or rec-

ommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect

the views of the National Science Foundation. The project is a collaborative effort between

Amanda Gouws, Department of Political Science, the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa),

and me. I am indebted to Charles Villa-Vicencio, Helen Macdonald, Paul Haupt, Nyameka

Goniwe, Fanie du Toit,Erik Doxtader, and the staff of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation

(South Africa), where I am a distinguished visiting research scholar, for the many helpful discus-

sions that have informed my understanding of the truth and reconciliation process in South

Africa. Most of the research on which this article relies was conducted while I was a visiting

scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, to which I am extremely grateful. I also appreciate the

research assistance of Eric Lomazoff of the Russell Sage Foundation.