Afro-communitarianism, Humanization and the Nature of Reconciliation Rianna Oelofsen (original) (raw)
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Afro-communitarianism and the nature of reconciliation
2013
In this dissertation I sketch a conception of personhood as understood from within an Afrocommunitarian worldview, and argue that this understanding of personhood has implications for understanding the concept of reconciliation. Understanding ‘being human’ as a collective, communal enterprise has implications for how responsibility, justice, forgiveness and humanization (all cognate concepts of reconciliation) are conceptualized. In line with this understanding of reconciliation and its cognate concepts, I argue that the humanization of self and other (according to the Afrocommunitarian understanding of personhood) is required for addressing the ‘inferiority’ and concurrent ‘superiority’ racial complexes as diagnosed by Franz Fanon and Steve Biko. These complexes reach deeply within individual and collective psyches and political identities, and I argue that political solutions to protracted conflict (in South Africa and other racially charged contexts) which do not address these de...
Afro-communitarian Implications for Justice and Reconciliation
Theoria, 2016
This article explores the relationship between the concepts of restorative justice, racial reconciliation and Afro-communitarianism, and how these concepts apply to the South African situation. A version of restorative justice which is necessary for the Afro-communitarian conception of reconciliation will be defended. The understanding of restorative justice defended includes aspects of both distributive and procedural justice.
Reconciliation Paradigm in the Post Colonial Africa
The article sets out to stir up the debate on reconciliation project in the post colonial Africa. As we strategise on ways and means of delivering the promise of reconstruction, there is need to pay more attention on the reconciliation for individual and society. In other words, does reconciliation mean blanket forgiveness or reparation? How can we ensure that those who looted Africa account for their misdeeds without further complicating the situation? The article is set on the premise that even though there are many paradigms in African theology of the twenty-fijirst century, minor paradigms (refer to reconciliation, liberation, inculturation, market-theology and charismatic among others) and the dominant paradigm (refer to reconstruction) are both critical in the holistic rebuilding of the post colonial Africa. This said; it is imperative to critically assess reconciliation as an important paradigm -as it runs concurrently with other paradigms in Africa today. In particular, are the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions taking place in various countries of the tropical Africa, since Tutu's South African sample of 1995, rooted in African cultural and religious heritage, and hence authentic? How can Africa go about her reconciliative phase?
2009
The argument consists of two parts. In the first part, I address the question as to the nature of reconciliation – reconciliation being a ‘social technology’ i.e. a set of established and viable st rategies of problem-solving, consisting however not in he manipulation of the natural, non-human aspects of the world but in the articulation and transforma tive management of human individuals and groups. Such social technologies of reconciliation i.e. of s cial and political conflict resolution, I will ex amine especially in the African context, and I will concl ude that, among the societies of the world, African societies have, since times immemorial, particularl y excelled in the social technology of reconciliati on as applied at the local and regional level. This le ads on to the second part, in which I contrast Afri ca’s excellent record in local and regional reconciliati on, with the excessive rate of destructive and geno cidal conflict that has characterised the African c ontinent...
The argument consists of two parts. In the first part, I address the question as to the nature of reconciliation -reconciliation being a 'social technology' i.e. a set of established and viable strategies of problem-solving, consisting however not in the manipulation of the natural, non-human aspects of the world but in the articulation and transformative management of human individuals and groups. Such social technologies of reconciliation i.e. of social and political conflict resolution, I will examine especially in the African context, and I will conclude that, among the societies of the world, African societies have, since times immemorial, particularly excelled in the social technology of reconciliation as applied at the local and regional level. This leads on to the second part, in which I contrast Africa's excellent record in local and regional reconciliation, with the excessive rate of destructive and genocidal conflict that has characterised the African continent in the past few decades. The argument's central question then becomes: How can we explain that Africa's social technologies of reconciliation have proven so utterly ineffective, and have so little been applied, at the national and the international level? After highlighting the crisis of legitimacy of modern and traditional elites as part of the explanation, a fuller explanation is derived from an examination of the political sociology of modern Africa, along such lines as the weak nature of Africa's formal organisations; the pitfall of particularist divisiveness; failing idioms of universalism; and the dislocated and alienated African subject. This leads us to consider Christianity and ubuntu ('the art of being human') in South African reconciliation, and to recognise transcendentalism and universalism as harbingers of peace -but at a considerable cultural cost for Africa. Greater attention to the time-honoured African social technology of reconciliation may help to reduce that cost. © 2009 Wim M.J. van Binsbergen Haarlem Netherlands 1 This is the greatly revised version of my paper 'On the dynamics of conflict, reconciliation and peace in African societies -from the local to the national level, and beyond', presented at the International Colloquium on The Problematic of Peace and Development in Africa: Balance Sheet and New Stakes in the 3 rd Millennium (convenor Jr. Prof.
Reconciliation: A way of life for the world
Verbum et Ecclesia, 2005
This article deals with the issue of reconciliation as a new way of life for the world. It focuses on scriptural passages that support the topic. It also examines the spiritual aspect of reconciliation which is forgotten by many writers. It seeks to restore harmony in relationships, especially where there are broken relationships. It challenges people to seek the truth as South Africans did, through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
1 Reconciliation, Identity, and Impiety
2015
There is value in beginning with a thin conception of reconciliation. Otherwise our understanding of it in political terms is clouded because we will be prone to quickly literalize a metaphor. Our usual context for understanding reconciliation is interpersonal. We imagine a moment of harmony between friends, family members, or co-workers that is disrupted by some injury or misunderstanding that wounds. Reconciliation is then both a process and an outcome where that disruption is overcome, where the wound is acknowledged, and harmony, while not as innocent as before, is restored. That understanding, in a process Kenneth Burke described in the Rhetoric of Religion, is carried into other realms: into the realm of political and social institutions, but also and more fundamentally into the immaterial realm of the theological. Reconciliation is understood as not only between humans, but between body and soul, or between men and women and their god. From there, the meaning of reconciliatio...