Afro-communitarian forgiveness and the concept of reconciliation

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the role of forgiveness (specifically in the post-apartheid South African context) within the process of reconciliation as understood from what I call an ‘Afro-communitarian’ perspective. Forgiveness, as understood from within this world-view, is performed as an invitation to commence a relationship based on equality, extended by victims/survivors towards perpetrators/ beneficiaries of harm. This invitation is understood to be a tentative one, and is meant to ‘draw out’ a response of taking responsibility for harms on the part of the perpetrators/beneficiaries. Lucy Allais’ account of forgiveness (that hails from a Kantian perspective), and her analyses of two cases from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is considered in order to contrast it with the Afro-communitarian account. A development of Antjie Krog's (what I label as) ‘Afro-communitarian’ account of forgiveness is then compared to Allais’ account, and it is argued that this account is able to explain what is happening in the TRC cases better than Allais’ understanding of forgiveness.