Annelies Verdoolaege

Media representations of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and their commitment to reconciliation

Abstract The success and prestige of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa can largely be attributed to the media attention. The extensive media coverage has been very positive for the TRC, especially with regard to the aspect of transparency. However, a drawback of such an elaborate media representation is that the media often tend to cover a phenomenon in a biased way. By studying the linguistic and visual aspects of the media discourse that represented the TRC, we will try to find out in which ways also this discourse was ideologically coloured. A brief overview of the relation between power and media discourse will be given, focusing mainly on theories from the domain of Critical Discourse Analysis. A number of important aspects inherent to the TRC media representation will be highlighted, distinguishing three features that seem to indicate an uncritical approach of some media towards the Commission. These features will then be applied to one particular TV programme that covered the TRC. The analysis will reveal that, although this programme tried to stand as an example of independent and critical journalism, it could not avoid the pitfalls of partiality and sensationalism. We will argue that there seems to be a link between the reconciliation-oriented discourse of this TV programme and the Commissions objective of promoting national reconciliation. Since this programme was quite successful in South Africa, we suggest that its discourse had a considerable amount of impact on society. Therefore, this television programme could be seen as one of the factors contributing to both the success of the TRC, and the reigning atmosphere of reconciliation in present day South Africa.

Dealing with a traumatic past: the victim hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and their reconciliation discourse

In the final years of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century, there has been a worldwide tendency to approach conflict resolution from a restorative rather than from a retributive perspective. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), with its principle of ‘amnesty for truth’ was a turning point. Based on my discursive research of the TRC victim hearings, I would argue that it was on a discursive level in particular that the Truth Commission has exerted/is still exerting a long-lasting impact on South African society. In this article, three of these features will be highlighted and illustrated: firstly, the TRC provided a discursive forum for thousands of ordinary citizens. Secondly, by means of testimonies from apartheid victims and perpetrators, the TRC composed an officially recognised archive of the apartheid past. Thirdly, the reconciliation discourse created at the TRC victim hearings formed a template for talking about a traumatic past, and it opened up the debate on reconciliation. By discussing these three features and their social impact, it will become clear that the way in which the apartheid past was remembered at the victim hearings seemed to have been determined, not so much by political concerns, but mainly by social needs.

Zone-it before IT zones you: a location-based digital notice board to build community while preserving privacy

The current success of ephemeral communication apps such as Snapchat points to the growing awareness among users about online ‘biographic mining’ through information technology by advertisers, companies and government agencies. Based on the literature, we argue that location-based services (LBS) can be the answer to preserving privacy, on the condition that they target trusted communities of anonymous users and that the communication is transient. The paper describes in three steps the development of an app fulfilling these conditions. From the interdisciplinary exchange between digital anthropologists, GIScientists and ICT engineers resulted Zone-it, a virtual notice board for self-zoning, permitting the user to start location-based interactions under certain categories. We present the results of a user survey that determined the apps functionalities. The functionalities offer a way for LBS to invert the purpose of social media such as Facebook by shifting attention from person-based to goal-oriented communication. The paper discusses why this move away from ‘faces’ to ‘places’ meets the purpose of community-building, rather than jeopardising it.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Multicultural Discourse

Abstract This paper forms the introduction of this special issue on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This introduction gives a short overview of the TRC, stressing the importance of discourse in the TRC process. Each of the presented papers is discussed and special attention is paid to the innovative nature of these contributions. Finally, this introduction stresses the value of the South African TRC in the worldwide tendency at peaceful conflict resolution in the aftermath of a traumatic past.

Don Foster, Paul Haupt and Marésa de Beer, The Theatre of Violence: narratives of protagonists in the South African conflict . Oxford: James Currey (pb £16, 95 – 0 85255 886 4). 2005, 364 pp.

attempts at self-sufficiency, gender, funding and disciplinary problems, the book covers a wide range of issues. The extensive use of short biographies and interview data from people who were involved with SOMAFCO provides snapshots of the people involved and the political context of the time. However, at times it does feel that one is reading a roll-call of members, which left this reviewer wanting more detail and analysis to explore the developments at the school. The chapter dealing with the primary school illustrates how a rapid turnover of staff and competing ideologies produced major changes in the education provided. From an educational perspective, the influence of Freire’s ideals and attempts to disrupt ‘traditional’ classroom relations speak to Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic violence – a discussion that is not undertaken. There are sections where the internal divisions, ideological differences, inconsistencies between ideology and practice, differential implementation of rules, and intrigues of the ANC and the exile community are elucidated clearly, and these make for fascinating reading. More profound contradictions are also intimated, but never fully explored: the egalitarianism of ANC ideology juxtaposed against the hierarchy of school structures; the relations between ANC exiles within the settlement (and why Zulu became the African lingua franca) and also between exiles and Tanzanians; the aim to make SOMAFCO self-sufficient whilst relying heavily upon international support; and the relative affluence and investment of resources into SOMAFCO which contrasted with the poverty and basic infrastructure of Tanzanians living in the surrounding areas. Overall, the authors provides an engaging and eminently readable narrative text which will appeal to a wide audience including those who experienced the school as well as those interested in the political and educational history of South Africa and the ANC. The descriptive nature which makes the book accessible also provides many avenues for further investigation. In addition to those areas mentioned above it would be of interest to see where former students are today, or how the SOMAFCO experience has informed postapartheid education policy. The questions which are left encourage critical thinking and much-needed analysis of ANC ideology and history, whilst the book itself succeeds in providing in an accessible format a clear outline of an often marginalized but vital aspect of the ANC’s work.

Jonathan Crush and David A. McDonald(eds), Transnationalism and New African Immigration to South Africa. Toronto: Southern African Migration Project & Canadian Association of African Studies (CDN

literature, art or even DNA. Within these three themes also, there is a great deal of variety, in such a way that not only is the concept of the archive discussed, but the reader also gets some insight into many historical, social and cultural aspects of South Africa and beyond. The fact that the contributors are mainly South Africans and that most of the illustrations are taken from South Africa adds to the symbolic value of the book. Since the end of apartheid, reconstruction of the historical archive has been a key question in this country, amongst others through the work of the TRC. Therefore, South Africa is an ideal country to illustrate the significance of an archive vis-à-vis the past, the present and the future. Not only is the level of the scholarly essays high, but the layout of the book also deserves admiration. Most of the articles are supplemented with text fragments or pictures, and there is an interesting stylistic mix of genres—besides regular articles, interviews, spoken lectures and testimonies are also used as discursive styles. In sum, Refiguring the Archive is an impressive piece of work, which addresses social and historical questions that have a global relevance. Because of its formal and thematic diversity it is open to a wide audience, giving academic information in an accessible way.