Reconciliations in Africa – An Overview
The use of a Truth and Reconciliation committee to facilitate community healing after periods of violence is not a new idea on the African continent.
Uganda
In 1974, the Ugandan President Idi Amin established “Commission of Inquiry into the Disappearances of People in Uganda since 25 January 1971” a truth commission mandated to investigate the disappearances of Ugandans during the early years of his reign. Although lacking any real power, and its findings never being released to the public, this initial attempt at Truth and Reconciliation helped pave the way for future commissions in South Africa, Sierra Leone, Chad, the Central African Republic, Morocco, Nigeria and Ghana.1
South Africa
The most well known Truth Commission in Africa was the South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) established on July 19th, 1995 as a way for South Africans to deal with the legacy of Apartheid. The idea behind the TRC was to give victims of violence, regardless of race or affiliation a voice in the process. Amnesty was also key to the TRC by allowing individuals to admit to acts of politically motivated violence without fear of prosecution.23
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone took a similar approach when it established a Truth Commission in 2002 to deal with the legacy of a prolonged civil war. They, however, took a bicameral approach establishing a South African style commission to deal with victims and low level perpetrators while a UN court was established to try those who were deemed most responsible for acts of violence. This approach allowed for the notion of Justice to be included as part of the reconciliation process.4
1 http://www.trial-ch.org/en/international/truth-commissions/uganda.html
2 http://gbgmumc.org/NWO/99ja/different.html
3 http://www.fathom.com/feature/121825/2392_van_zyl.pdf
4 http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v8/v8i1a1.htm#_edn46