RT Article
T1 The anatomy of apology and forgiveness: towards transformative apology and forgiveness
JF International journal of transitional justice
VO 13
IS 2
SP 206
OP 224
A1 Tarusarira, Joram
LA English
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1675714754
AB The central thesis of this article is that while apology and forgiveness are vital for dealing with a violent past, there is a need to critically transform the sociopolitical epistemic subjectivities that underpin a wrongdoing. These include political discourses, narratives, ideas and ideologies that justified the wrongdoing in the first place and are thus its bedrock. This is against the understanding that brutality and violence are sustained by particular epistemologies, logics and reasonings. Failure to bring about their transformation results in not stopping the repetition of brutality and not realizing sustainable reconciliation, as well as stifling key aspects of dealing with the past, such as truth seeking, truth telling, justice and accountability. By drawing on the state-sponsored massacres in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s - the Gukurahundi massacres - this article argues that current calls for, and implementations of, apologies and forgiveness are often undertaken without considering the need to transform the epistemic bedrock of conflict and violence which engenders apology and forgiveness. This lack of focus on transformation makes apology and forgiveness susceptible to abuse or underutilization, and thus impotent in facilitating sustainable reconciliation. The article emphasizes the need to transform the cognitive and epistemic subjectivities underpinning wrongdoing, thus making a case for transformative apology and forgiveness.
NO Literaturhinweise
K1 Konflikt
K1 Auswirkung
K1 Matabele
K1 Massaker
K1 Vergangenheitsbewältigung
K1 Transitional Justice
K1 Nation
K1 Versöhnung
K1 Kollektives Gedächtnis
K1 Opfer : Sozialpsychologie
K1 Violent crimes
K1 Simbabwe
DO 10.1093/ijtj/ijz006