Truth, Justice and Reconciliation
information.”
The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, article 19.
“The past is an argument and the function of truth commissions, like the
function of
honest historians, is simply to purify the argument, to narrow the range of permissible lies.”
“Articles
of Faith” Michael Ignatieff, 1966
“If we wanted our common citizenship to be worth anything we had to
overcome the practice of having a white history and a black history,
resulting in two completely separate and unrecognized accounts of what
happened in our country; we needed all to be on the same existential map
for the first time, to cease once and for all being settlers and natives
with different and incompatible destinies. This required not simply
decontextualized, static, accurately focused microscopic truths, but
broadly located, mobile, multi-layered and interactive dialogic truth.”
“The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter” Albie
Sachs, 2000
(Mr. Sachs is a judge
on South Africa’s Constitutional Court.)
“For the sake of reconciliation we must forgive but for the sake of
reconstruction we dare not forget.”
“Dealing With the Past” Lourens du Plessis, 1994
“The last time I stood up in court was to find out if I was going to be
hanged. Today, I rise to inaugurate South Africa’s first
constitutional court....”
President Nelson Mandela, 1994
“The moment the lie raises its head I smell blood. Because it is
there where the truth is closest.”
“Country of My Skull” Antjie Krog, 1998
“The great and poignant paradox of our lives was that we had fought with
all our passion to create a boring society.” “Could it be that
once we achieved our ideals, we could no longer live for them? I
felt miserably neutered by the normality for which we had fought,...”
“The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter” Albie
Sachs, 2000
Mr. Sachs is a judge on South Africa’s
Constitutional Court
