How do we talk about truth in South Africa?

Justice Visions

"There was this tsunami of truths"

- Antjie Krog

In 1995, South Africa installed a Truth and Reconciliation commission to address the legacy of Apartheid. The commission has received a lot of criticism, for its failure to provide reparations, its amnesty policy, and several other reasons. Yet, it has also been an important factor in shaping how we think about past injustice, as well as shaping how we think about truth.

In this episode we talk with Antjie Krog, a South African journalist, writer and poet whose writings often reflect on elements related to truth and redress for victims. Her seminal work of literary non-fiction Country of My Skull addressed the Truth and Reconciliation commission's hearings.

In her nuanced reflections, she acknowledges the failings of this Commission, and truth commissions more generally, but also states that "I can't imagine the country without it. Even those who cut themselves off from what is happening there, it has reached them in a way".

We talk with her about how the work of the truth and reconciliation commission has sometimes been complemented with narrative and literary efforts to engage with the concept of truth and justice, and examine where the two can meet. "I do not think literature can do the work that a truth commission did. Literature can look afterwards, and literature should work before."