Uncovering Truth and Memory: Analyzing South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its Potential Inspiration for the US Major

Never again. Two contradicting words that compel and command audiences to ponder what had happened and why it was so abhorrent that it must never happen again. Short and unforgettable, this cautionary oxymoron encapsulates the evocative histories behind scarred, trauma-ridden countries. In an effort to confront such horrors of their past, some countries have created truth commissions, more commonly known globally as Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC), the first of which was established in Argentina in 1983 as the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons. While many nations have utilized these commissions to heal, reconcile with, and prevent the erasure of their unique yet harrowing histories, every TRC approaches this task differently. My presentation will focus on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commision and its profound impact on unveiling truth, protecting memory, and serving justice. Undertaking a restorative justice approach towards reconciliation, South Africa lays the groundwork for not only healing the scars of their own apartheid history, but inspiring others to do the same. Many Black Americans understand the disillusionment and confusion in learning the dominant history of the U.S. from the colonizer’s perspective, only to then unlearn and learn anew the truth surrounding the erasure of history among African and indigenous populations. TRCs work to heal and restore the collective memory and protect against further abuses, a needed effort in reconciling generational traumas among the African diaspora within the U.S and preventing the cyclical nature of violence from continuing