Reckoning with the Past: The Contrast between the Kenyan and South African Experiences

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Periodical article

Title:	Reckoning with the Past: The Contrast between the Kenyan and South African Experiences
Author:	Elkins, Caroline
Year:	2000
Periodical:	Social Dynamics
Volume:	26
Issue:	2
Period:	Summer
Pages:	8-28
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Kenya South Africa
Subjects:	offences against human rights commissions of inquiry Mau Mau colonialism History and Exploration Ethnic and Race Relations Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533950008458693
Abstract:	For some, the truth and its revelation is a prerequisite to healing, and with it the rebuilding of nations decimated by war and human rights violations. For others, however, the truth is not the path to reconciliation but to further division and conflict. The door to the past must remain unopened, and the injustices that reside behind it fogotten. Such binary approaches to contending with gross violations in a nation's past distinguish South Africa during the postapartheid period from Kenya in the era since the Mau Mau emergency. This article examines the current debates surrounding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa, and underscores their significance in the country's broader public reckoning with its histories. It compares the range and volume of public discourses with the silences that have enshrouded Kenya and its Mau Mau past. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]