Abstract

This dissertation explores the dynamics of post-apartheid reconciliation in South Africa and offers a model of political forgiveness as a process. Drawing upon a series of interviews conducted in South Africa in 2000, as well as scholarly and journalistic publications on such topics as forgiveness theory, political reconciliation, truth-telling, apology, amnesty, restorative and retributive justice, transitional democracy, post-traumatic disorders, and reparations for injustice, a Drama of Political Forgiveness in Five Acts is offered as a model for a national forgiveness process. Particular attention is given to the history of race relations in South Africa and to the successes and failures of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is argued that the goal of society-wide forgiveness is an appropriate one for those involved in the work of post-conflict reconstruction. The pursuit of this goal is compatible with, indeed depends upon, the pursuit of other goals such as individual and collective healing and the building of a transitional justice framework.