The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

by Mary Ingouville Burton

In 1995, South Africa’s new government set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a lynchpin of the country’s journey forward from apartheid. In contrast to the Nuremberg Trials and other retributive responses to atrocities, the TRC’s emphasis on reconciliation marked a restorative approach to addressing human rights violations and their legacies. The hearings, headed by Bishop Desmond Tutu, began in spring of 1996. The commission was set up with three to investigate abuses, to assist victims with rehabilitation, and to consider perpetrators’ requests for amnesty. More than two decades after the first hearings, the TRC’s legacy remains mixed. Many families still do not know what became of their loved ones, and the commission came under legal challenges both from ex-president F. W. de Klerk and the African National Congress. Yet, the TRC fulfilled a vital role in the transition from apartheid to democracy, and has become a model for other countries. This latest addition to the Ohio Short Histories of Africa series is a trenchant look at the TRC’s entire, stunningly ambitious project. And as a longtime activist for justice in South Africa and a former commissioner of the TRC, Mary Ingouville Burton is uniquely positioned to write this complex story.

Genres: Africa, South Africa

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Born in Argentina, Mary was one of three children of Molly and Peter Ingouville. She attended schools in Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland and France. She trained as a journalist and in 1959 went to work for weekly Times of Brazil. In 1958, she met South African Geoffrey Burton. The couple married in Brazil and moved to South Africa in 1961. She became a leading figure in the Black Sash, an anti-Apartheid organisation formed by white South African women to protest human rights violations.

Burton served as the president of the Black Sash from 1986 to 1990. In 1995, she was appointed a Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and served on its Human Rights Committee. In 2000, she helped launch the Home for All Campaign, a campaign that called primarily on white South Africans to contribute to the reconciliation of South Africa in recognition of the benefits they had received from racial privilege under Apartheid. She has been awarded civic, provincial, and national honors, including the Order of Luthuli in Silver, and holds an honorary degree from the University of Cape Town.

Reviews

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even after reading a dozen books on South Africa and the history of apartheid, I still have difficulty managing the complicated barrage of names, organizations, historical events, and political camps. This short account of the TRC, by one of its commissioners, is useful for providing an overview of the inside workings, strengths, limitations, and criticisms. Regarding transitional justice, the TRC’s process of granting amnesty, limited reparations, establishing guilt, and, most memorably, creating a forum for victims’ testimonies, is one of the indispensable historical events of our time. However, little of the emotion or the power of the TRC comes through here. It is by necessity a truncated account and shouldn’t the first or last thing one reads about it. For example, the dizzying parade of acronyms might disorient the novice. I suggest reading this only after watching a doc such as "Long Night’s Journey into Day." Burton brings us up to 2016, so we get a sense of recent developments.

[Emma Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short history of the TRC. It is pretty accessible to those who know little about the commission going into reading it. I read this for a class and it is just a fact heavy account.