truth and.. reconciliation?

John Daniels, our academic director here, was one of the researchers on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the post-apartheid period. To sum it up, the man is legit. He worked on tons of cases, and in conjunction with Desmond Tutu and Alex Borraine.

This week we've been learning about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission- the process through which the nation was rebuilt, people applied for amnesty, and reconciliation was attempted...

I say attempted because this learning experience so far has made me realize how very hard true reconciliation is. The 'rainbow nation' is still classified into white, indian, colored, and black- the people themselves classify each other in casual conversation. There is a new sense of equality, but an underlying tension that this equality is fragile, and needs to still be strengthened.

21,000 people recorded their stories and gave them to the TRC. 2,000 were invited to tell their stories at a council, in public. All of these cases were investigated.

Over 80% of people that applied for amenesty were black, although the majority of GVHR (gross violation of human rights) were committed by the apartheid security forces of the National Party.

Watching footage from the TRC was heartbreaking. I've cried through every segment... mainly, the question that keeps running through my head is,

"How can people do this to one another?"

Watching that footage has made me realize how far the country has come. That I can be welcomed into an all black and indian neighborhood, and safe there. That I can be one of many walking downtown Durban. That I can swim with everyone else. The separations have fallen, but it was not without pain.

The absolute pain and torture of acknowledging past wrongs and working through them is evident in every step of the TRC. Tutu wanted reconciliation over truth, nation building over punishment, because 'it all comes out in the end anyways'. Watching people face their past torturers, asking "What kind of man are you? How can you not remember what you did to me?" is heart wrenching. Watching past abusers struggle with the acts they committed is hard as well.

What strikes me most is that this torture and pain continues to occur, in our own country. The US continues to use torture tactics and blacklist sites that we are not attempting to reconcile or know the truth about.

What will the eventual repercussions of this be? Looking at South Africa now, I think it will be a high cost to us all.