It was Julian Bond who eloquently put forth the dilemma of struggle by raising the question “How do you restore humanity to people who may have lost their humanity in the struggle to gain their humanity.” This question becomes profoundly acute in situations of armed conflict where people have been traumatized by their experiences. The issues that emerge out of this dilemma become apparently active and visible when the people begin to start the process of dealing with their past and their future.
Any process towards reconciliation is fundamentally determined by the ethical and spiritual values of a society. The slogan ‘forgive and forget’ as a basis for reconciliation is a contradiction in term, which violates all ethical and spiritual principles of a shared humanity. Archbishop Tutu says to state “let us forget about it” would only re-victimize the victims and imply that “what happened either did not happen, or it does not matter.” The concepts of forgive and forget has proved to be not only shortsighted but counter productive as well. It is important to recall the words at the entrance of the concentration camp museum in Dachau: “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.”
It is crucial to acknowledge that Reconciliation is a process that is often begun at the risk of further injury, but that it invariably ends in creating something new. Reconciliation is thus not an ‘event’ but a process. Very often many people wish to confuse reconciliation with forgiveness. Yes it is true to state that reconciliation cannot take place without at least a shred of forgiveness. However, forgiveness cannot be a substitute for justice or peace; neither is it an isolated act and therefore is not the same as granting pardon.
Truth therefore must be established and acknowledgement of historical wrongs must take place. The process of confession and forgiveness is to expose the guilt of perpetrators and to restore their humanness. It provides opportunity for reconciliation to take place and to dismantle the institutions and systems that played a role in oppression and injustice. Archbishop Tutu states, “forgiveness is not just a spiritual something that is nebulous. It is infact ‘realpolitik:’ there will be no future without forgiveness.”
Reconciliation is therefore a process of encounter and engagement where the concerns of both the past and the future meet, with the acknowledgement of the past and the envisioning of the future. It is important to recognize that reconciliation cannot happen when there is the ‘foot on the neck.’ Paulo Freire is more concise: Any reconciliation between oppressors and oppressed, as social classes, presupposes the liberation of the oppressed, a liberation forged by themselves through their own revolutionary praxis.
Mamdani states that: “The form of justice flows from the form of power. If victor’s justice requires power, then is not victor’s justice simply revenge masquerading as justice?” He goes on to question: Is a form of justice possible that is not at the same time victor’s justice? Is a form of reconciliation possible that is not at the same time an absence of justice, and thus an embrace of evil? Mamdani therefore suggests that the key to sustainable reconciliation is ‘political reconciliation.’ He further adds that: “The prime requirement of political reconciliation is neither criminal justice nor social justice, but political justice.”
The purpose of justice is ultimately the restoration of harmony within and between peoples. In effect it implies that we need to transform the structures and systems that perpetuate violence, division, suffering and oppression. Dr. Rigoberta Tum goes on to add “I can’t forget that forgiveness comes with truth and justice.”
The process of restoring the unity in purpose of a people in their struggle for dignity must therefore be a multifaceted process involving multiple processes that are interdependent and occurring simultaneously. This process cannot be an isolated event, but must encompass the broader political framework of a peoples dignified existence. In other words, the process is a continuum between the past and the future, in which the present is a created reality of an aspired political future.
