The impossible machine: A genealogy of South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commission

Abstract

Adam Sitze meticulously traces the origins of South Africa�s Truth and Reconciliation Commission back to two well-established instruments of colonial and imperial governance: the jurisprudence of indemnity and the commission of inquiry. This genealogy provides a fresh, though counterintuitive, understanding of the TRC�s legal, political, and cultural importance. The TRC�s genius, Sitze contends, is not the substitution of “forgiving” restorative justice for “strict” legal justice but rather the innovative adaptation of colonial law, sovereignty, and government. However, this also contains a potential liability: if the TRC�s origins are forgotten, the very enterprise intended to overturn the jurisprudence of colonial rule may perpetuate it. In sum, Sitze proposes a provocative new means by which South Africa�s Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be understood and evaluated.