4 - Negotiating Nation-building and Citizenship through the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s ‘Dramatic’ Spheres: A Reading of Two Post-apartheid Plays
Corresponding Author(s) : Busuyi Mekusi
Africa Development,
Vol. 35 No. 1-2 (2010): Africa Development: Special Issue on Language, Literature and Power in the Public Sphere
Abstract
Having a voice, either at the level of the individual or the community, has been one of the atavistic ways of defining or asserting humanity. This allows for the inscription of the twin-capped hegemony of successes or victories and frustrations at both the private locus and the public sphere. The disruptions of this possibility by rifts between natives in pre-colonial South Africa were aggravated in the heat of the colonial suppression it suffered, and was compounded by the operation of apartheid rule. By reason of this misrule, voices were suppressed, with a few cacophonies of dissention breaking forth. The culmination of these disenchantments into the demise of apartheid significantly presaged the need for reconstruction and redefinition of citizenship and cohabitation, and hence the necessity for establishing a public sphere, or put alternatively, a public domain in the form of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This paper, therefore, seeks to interrogate the dramatic world(s) created using the material properties of the TRC in John Kani’s Nothing but the Truth and Zakes Mda’s The Bells of Amersfoort. The paper argues that the domination and manipulation of this public realm by the state at the expense of the individual is not only counterproductive, but constitutes a denial of the relevance of such spheres. The paper, going by indices in the plays, therefore, concludes that every individual should not only be: given a voice, and be heard, but be allowed equal unbiased participation. Otherwise, the public sphere would not just be impotent, but the idea of nation-building and desirable citizenship would be a mere ruse.
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- Achebe, C., 1975, Morning Yet on Creation Day, New York: Anchor Press.
- Ainley, R., ed., 1998, ‘Introduction’, New Frontiers of Space, Bodies and Gender, London: Routledge, pp. xiii-xvii.
- Asmal, K. et al., 1996, Reconciliation Through Truth: a Reckoning of Apartheid’s Criminal Governance, Cape Town: David Philip Publishers.
- Baddeley, A., 1989, ‘The Psychology of Remembering and Forgetting’, Memory, History, Culture and the Mind, ed., Thomas Butler, New York: Basil Blackwell Ltd, pp. 33-60.
- Ben Achour, Y., 2002, ‘The Order of Truth and the Order of Society’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 123-134.
- Bester, R., 2002, ‘Trauma and Truth’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 155-173.
- Bharucha, R., 2002, ‘Between Truth and Reconciliation: Experiments in Theater and Public Culture’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 361-388.
- Bozzoli, B., 2004, Theatre of Struggle and the End of Apartheid, Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
- Bridge, G., 2004, ‘Pierre Bourdieu’, Key Thinkers on Space and Place, eds., Phil Hubbard, Rob Kitchin and Gill Valentine, London: SAGE Publications Inc., pp. 59-64.
- Clarke, D. and Doel, M., 2004, ‘Zygmunt Bauman’, Key Thinkers on Space and Place, eds., Phil Hubbard, Rob Kitchin and Gill Valentine, London: SAGE Publications Inc., pp. 33-39.
- Cole, C.M., 2004, ‘Theatres of Truth, Acts of Reconciliation: the TRC in South Africa’, African Drama and Performance, eds., John Conteh-Morgan and Tejumola Olaniyan, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 219-226.
- Enwezor, O., 2002, ‘Introduction’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 13-17.
- Fombad, C.M., 2004, ‘Prospects for Peace Building through Truth Commissions in Africa’, The Quest for Peace in Africa: Transformations, Democracy and Public Policy, ed., Alfred G. Nhema, Utrecht: International Books, pp. 189-219.
- Goode, L., 2005, Jurgen Habermas: Democracy and the Public Sphere, London: Pluto Press.
- Goodsell, C.T., 2003, ‘The Concept of Public Space and Its Democratic Manifestations’, American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 361-383.
- Kani, J., 2002, Nothing But the Truth, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
- Kok, de I., 1998, ‘Cracked Heirlooms: Memory on Exhibition’, Negotiating the Past: the Making of Memory in South Africa, eds., Sarrah Nuttall and Carli Coetzee, Cape Town: Oxford University Press, pp. 57-71.
- Mamdani, M., 2000, ‘The Truth According to the TRC’, The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing and Social Justice, eds., Ifi Amadiume and Abdullahi An- Na’im, London: Zed Books, pp. 176-182.
- Massey, D., 2005, For Space, London: SAGE Publications.
- McCorkle, J., 2001, ‘Gender, Text and Space in J.M. Coetzee’s Fiction’, Spaces and Crossings: Essays on Literature and Culture in Africa and Beyond, eds., Rita Wilson and Carlotta von Maltzan, New York: Peter Lang, pp.107-123.
- McGuigan, J., 1998, ‘What Price the Public Sphere?’, Electronic Empires: Global Media and Local Resistance, ed., Daya Kishan Thussu, London: Arnold, pp. 91-107.
- Mda, Z., 2002, Fools, Bells, and the Habit of Eating (Three satires), Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
- Natter, W. and J.P. Jones, 1997, ‘Identity, Space, and Other Uncertainties’, Georges Benko and Ulf Strohmayer, eds., Space and Social Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, pp. 141-161.
- Nuttall, S., 1998, ‘Telling “Free” Stories? Memory and Democracy in South African Autobiography Since 1994', Negotiating the Past: the Making of Memory in South Africa, Sarah Nuttall and Carli Coetzee, eds., Cape Town: Oxford University Press, pp. 76-88.
- Olukoshi, A., 2008, ‘Bringing the Public Sphere into African Democratic Theory’, Paper presented during the First Plenary Session of the CODESRIA 12th General Assembly, at Yaoundé, Cameroon, on 8th December.
- Philo, C., 2004, ‘Michel Foucault’, Key Thinkers on Space and Place, eds., Phil Hubbard, Rob Kitchin and Gill Valentine, London: SAGE Publications Inc., pp. 121-128.
- Ricoeur, P., 2004, Memory, History, Forgetting, Translated by Kathleen Blamey and David Pellaver, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- Sachs, A., 2002, ‘Different Kinds of Truth: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 43-60.
- Sanders, M., 2007, Ambiguities of Witnessing: Law and Literature in the Time of a Truth Commission, Johannesburg, Wits University Press.
- Shafir, M., 2004, ‘The Politics of Public Space and the Legacy of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Hungary’, An abridged version of the Paper ‘Hungarian Politics and the Legacy of the Holocaust Since 1989’, presented at the 16-18 March 2004 Symposium ‘The Holocaust in Hungary: Sixty Years Later’, Washington, D. C., The United State Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- Sharp, J., 2007, ‘The Life and Death of Public Spaces: Public Art and Community Regeneration in Glasgow’, Cultural Geographies, pp. 274-292.
- Shields, R., 1997, ‘Spatial Stress and Resistance: Social Meanings of Spatialization’, Georges Benko and Ulf Strohmayer, eds., Space and Social Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, pp. 186-202.
- Soyinka, W., 2000, ‘Memory, Truth and Healing’, The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing and Social Justice, eds., Ifi Amadiume and Abdullahi An-Na’im, London: Zed Books, pp. 20-37.
- Sparks, C., 1998, ‘Is there a Public Sphere?’, in Electronic Empires: Global Media and Local Resistance, ed., Daya Kishan Thussu, London: Arnold, pp. 108- 124.
- Tierney, T., 2007, Abstract Space: The Beneath the Media Surface, Oxon: Taylor & Francis.
- Vora, J.A. and Vora, E., 2004, ‘The Effectiveness of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Perceptions of Xhosa, Afrikaner, and English South Africa’, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 34, No 3, pp. 301-322.
- Werlen, B., 1993, Society, Action and Space: An Alternative Human Geography, London: Routledge.
References
Achebe, C., 1975, Morning Yet on Creation Day, New York: Anchor Press.
Ainley, R., ed., 1998, ‘Introduction’, New Frontiers of Space, Bodies and Gender, London: Routledge, pp. xiii-xvii.
Asmal, K. et al., 1996, Reconciliation Through Truth: a Reckoning of Apartheid’s Criminal Governance, Cape Town: David Philip Publishers.
Baddeley, A., 1989, ‘The Psychology of Remembering and Forgetting’, Memory, History, Culture and the Mind, ed., Thomas Butler, New York: Basil Blackwell Ltd, pp. 33-60.
Ben Achour, Y., 2002, ‘The Order of Truth and the Order of Society’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 123-134.
Bester, R., 2002, ‘Trauma and Truth’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 155-173.
Bharucha, R., 2002, ‘Between Truth and Reconciliation: Experiments in Theater and Public Culture’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 361-388.
Bozzoli, B., 2004, Theatre of Struggle and the End of Apartheid, Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Bridge, G., 2004, ‘Pierre Bourdieu’, Key Thinkers on Space and Place, eds., Phil Hubbard, Rob Kitchin and Gill Valentine, London: SAGE Publications Inc., pp. 59-64.
Clarke, D. and Doel, M., 2004, ‘Zygmunt Bauman’, Key Thinkers on Space and Place, eds., Phil Hubbard, Rob Kitchin and Gill Valentine, London: SAGE Publications Inc., pp. 33-39.
Cole, C.M., 2004, ‘Theatres of Truth, Acts of Reconciliation: the TRC in South Africa’, African Drama and Performance, eds., John Conteh-Morgan and Tejumola Olaniyan, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 219-226.
Enwezor, O., 2002, ‘Introduction’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 13-17.
Fombad, C.M., 2004, ‘Prospects for Peace Building through Truth Commissions in Africa’, The Quest for Peace in Africa: Transformations, Democracy and Public Policy, ed., Alfred G. Nhema, Utrecht: International Books, pp. 189-219.
Goode, L., 2005, Jurgen Habermas: Democracy and the Public Sphere, London: Pluto Press.
Goodsell, C.T., 2003, ‘The Concept of Public Space and Its Democratic Manifestations’, American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 361-383.
Kani, J., 2002, Nothing But the Truth, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Kok, de I., 1998, ‘Cracked Heirlooms: Memory on Exhibition’, Negotiating the Past: the Making of Memory in South Africa, eds., Sarrah Nuttall and Carli Coetzee, Cape Town: Oxford University Press, pp. 57-71.
Mamdani, M., 2000, ‘The Truth According to the TRC’, The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing and Social Justice, eds., Ifi Amadiume and Abdullahi An- Na’im, London: Zed Books, pp. 176-182.
Massey, D., 2005, For Space, London: SAGE Publications.
McCorkle, J., 2001, ‘Gender, Text and Space in J.M. Coetzee’s Fiction’, Spaces and Crossings: Essays on Literature and Culture in Africa and Beyond, eds., Rita Wilson and Carlotta von Maltzan, New York: Peter Lang, pp.107-123.
McGuigan, J., 1998, ‘What Price the Public Sphere?’, Electronic Empires: Global Media and Local Resistance, ed., Daya Kishan Thussu, London: Arnold, pp. 91-107.
Mda, Z., 2002, Fools, Bells, and the Habit of Eating (Three satires), Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Natter, W. and J.P. Jones, 1997, ‘Identity, Space, and Other Uncertainties’, Georges Benko and Ulf Strohmayer, eds., Space and Social Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, pp. 141-161.
Nuttall, S., 1998, ‘Telling “Free” Stories? Memory and Democracy in South African Autobiography Since 1994', Negotiating the Past: the Making of Memory in South Africa, Sarah Nuttall and Carli Coetzee, eds., Cape Town: Oxford University Press, pp. 76-88.
Olukoshi, A., 2008, ‘Bringing the Public Sphere into African Democratic Theory’, Paper presented during the First Plenary Session of the CODESRIA 12th General Assembly, at Yaoundé, Cameroon, on 8th December.
Philo, C., 2004, ‘Michel Foucault’, Key Thinkers on Space and Place, eds., Phil Hubbard, Rob Kitchin and Gill Valentine, London: SAGE Publications Inc., pp. 121-128.
Ricoeur, P., 2004, Memory, History, Forgetting, Translated by Kathleen Blamey and David Pellaver, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Sachs, A., 2002, ‘Different Kinds of Truth: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’, Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Process of Truth and Reconciliation, Document 11_Platform 2, Okwui Enwezor et al., eds., Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, pp. 43-60.
Sanders, M., 2007, Ambiguities of Witnessing: Law and Literature in the Time of a Truth Commission, Johannesburg, Wits University Press.
Shafir, M., 2004, ‘The Politics of Public Space and the Legacy of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Hungary’, An abridged version of the Paper ‘Hungarian Politics and the Legacy of the Holocaust Since 1989’, presented at the 16-18 March 2004 Symposium ‘The Holocaust in Hungary: Sixty Years Later’, Washington, D. C., The United State Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Sharp, J., 2007, ‘The Life and Death of Public Spaces: Public Art and Community Regeneration in Glasgow’, Cultural Geographies, pp. 274-292.
Shields, R., 1997, ‘Spatial Stress and Resistance: Social Meanings of Spatialization’, Georges Benko and Ulf Strohmayer, eds., Space and Social Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, pp. 186-202.
Soyinka, W., 2000, ‘Memory, Truth and Healing’, The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing and Social Justice, eds., Ifi Amadiume and Abdullahi An-Na’im, London: Zed Books, pp. 20-37.
Sparks, C., 1998, ‘Is there a Public Sphere?’, in Electronic Empires: Global Media and Local Resistance, ed., Daya Kishan Thussu, London: Arnold, pp. 108- 124.
Tierney, T., 2007, Abstract Space: The Beneath the Media Surface, Oxon: Taylor & Francis.
Vora, J.A. and Vora, E., 2004, ‘The Effectiveness of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Perceptions of Xhosa, Afrikaner, and English South Africa’, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 34, No 3, pp. 301-322.
Werlen, B., 1993, Society, Action and Space: An Alternative Human Geography, London: Routledge.