The Contributions of Truth to Reconciliation

• DOI: 10.1177/0022002706287115
• Published date: 01 June 2006
• Author: James L. Gibson
• Date: 01 June 2006
• Subject Matter: Articles

409

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a revised version of a paper delivered at the conference on “Judging

Transitional Justice: An Interdisciplinary Workshop on New Democracies’ Coming to Terms with Their

Past,”University of California, Irvine, October 30-31, 2004. 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 recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not neces-

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

Amanda Gouws, Department of Political Science, 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 discussions that have informed my under-

standing 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 acknowledge the research assistance of Eric Lomazoff, of the Russell Sage

Foundation. I appreciate very much the most helpful comments on an earlier version of this article by

Marc Morjé Howard, Leslie Vinjamuri, Ursula van Beek, and Jack Snyder. I especially appreciate the

detailed advice of Barry O’Neill.

JOURNAL OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION, Vol. 50 No. 3, June 2006 409-432

DOI: 10.1177/0022002706287115

© 2006 Sage Publications

The Contributions of

Truth to Reconciliation

LESSONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

JAMES L. GIBSON

Department of Political Science

Washington University in St. Louis and

Centre for Comparative and International Politics

Stellenbosch University, South Africa

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is undoubtedly the most widely

discussed truth and reconciliation process in the world, and by many accounts, the TRC is among the most

effective any country has yet produced. What is the explanation for its success? This article has two objec-

tives. First, it seeks to identify the characteristics of South Africa’s truth and reconciliation process that

contributed to its performance. Second, it then asks whether the truth and reconciliation process is itself

endogenous. Thus, the ultimate objective is to assess whether truth and reconciliation processes can have

an independent influence on reconciliation and especially on the likelihood of consolidating an attempted

democratic transition. The conclusion of this article is that the truth and reconciliation process in South

Africa did indeed exert independent influence on the democratization process through its contributions

toward creating a more reconciled society.

Keywords: reconciliation; forgiveness; South Africa; democratization

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An increasingly common feature of attempts at transition to democratic politics is

the creation of some sort of truth and reconciliation process.1Roughly two dozen

such processes have been established, including what is probably the first American

effort at truth and reconciliation, the Greensboro (North Carolina) Truth and

Reconciliation Commission.2Truth may not be the only route to reconciliation, but

it is an increasingly popular choice of those seeking to move beyond the past to a

more peaceful and democratic future.

The popularity of such transitional justice processes is in no small part a reaction

to the apparent success of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

(TRC).3At the most simplistic level, South Africa has recently celebrated its first ten

years of democracy, with a transition from apartheid that was marred by remarkably

little bloodshed, retribution, and vengeance.4In the eyes of many, a crucial factor in

the success of this transition was the TRC. Led by Desmond Tutu and fully sup-

ported by Nelson Mandela, the process certainly generated a great deal of informa-

tion if not truth (including a seven-volume report), and talk of reconciliation filled

public discourse since the time when the commission was created. Although some

South African commentators are less sanguine,5many observers throughout the

world subscribe to the view that the truth process did indeed contribute to reconcil-

iation in South Africa and that reconciliation has been a crucial factor in moving the

country toward a more democratic future.

Indeed, my recently published book, Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth

Reconcile a Divided Nation? (Gibson 2004), answers the question posed by the

subtitle with a cautious and qualified “yes,” at least for some groups in South

Africa. Based on an analysis of a representative sample of ordinary South

Africans, that inquiry concludes that truth and reconciliation are connected, that

truth (as promulgated by the TRC6) did not undermine reconciliation within any of

the groups in South Africa, and that for whites, Coloured people, and those of

Asian origin, truth may actually have caused reconciliation.7And among at least

410 JOURNAL OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION

1. Indeed, Hayner (2001), for instance, predicts that such commissions will become even more

common in the future.

2. See http://www.gtcrp.org [accessed June 2, 2004].

3. See http://africana.rug.ac.be/texts/publications/Annelies/Survey.doc for a bibliography of nearly

450 works on the South African truth and reconciliation process [accessed June 2, 2004].

4. Tetlock (1998) reports that only eleven of twenty-six experts on South Africa correctly predicted

the demise of the apartheid system.

5. For instance: “The TRC is regarded as a novel experiment of restorative justice and nation-building

through reconciliation; it is often recommended as an international model for similar conflicts elsewhere;

and its achievements are widely overrated outside South Africa, while largely dismissed inside” (Adam

and Adam 2000, 33, emphasis added). For a contrary view, see Gibson (2005).

6. As will become clearer below,when I refer to “truth” I mean the truth about the apartheid past,

as documented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC put forth this truth as a

collective memory of the past. My purpose is not to judge the veracity of the TRC’s truth but rather to

measure the degree to which ordinary South Africans judge the TRC’s conclusions to be truth.

7. For a more detailed consideration of race in South Africa, see Gibson and Gouws (2003, 35-8)

and Gibson (2004, 24-7). In general, I accept the racial categories as identified by the editor of a special

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