3 - The Violence of History and the Angel of Forgiveness

Summary

One of the challenges facing postapartheid South Africa is how to build a society that does not replicate the moral ills of the apartheid regime and has as its foundation principles of fairness and inclusion. I argued in chapter 2 that Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu took steps in that direction by steering their society toward the named universal principles. Their insistence on forgiveness does not imply a glossing of the injustices of the past. Nor does it mean abandoning the quest for fairness. Rather, their efforts are some of the preliminary, albeit most defining, steps in establishing a truly democratic society.

To those skeptical of Africa's ability to democratize, President Jacob Zuma's and even some of President Thabo Mbeki's missteps might be taken as symptomatic of widespread political dysfunction on the continent. To sympathetic students of African history, however, these missteps could be seen as nothing more than hiccups in the country's long journey toward a better society. Of greater importance, in my thinking, is how South African intellectuals conceive of their society and how they relate to history. I give special attention to the intellectuals of the majority black population because of their being in position to influence others not only through the force of their arguments, but also through their affective proximity to the majority. How do these black intellectuals imagine the future of their society, especially within the social and moral contexts of forgiveness and reconciliation? How do they interpret the oppression of the past and the wounds they have experienced? Do they position themselves as having been purified and necessarily made good by the grace of having been victims? This chapter examines the cosmopolitan visions of two of the most prominent postapartheid black South African intellectuals, Njabulo Ndebele and Zakes Mda. I argue that while, like many others, they keep memories of the past alive, they warn against the adoption of a moral rectitude that might arise from the feeling of hurt. Instead, they enhance the moral visions of Mandela and Tutu and encourage society to draw lessons from the oppression of the past to create a more equitable and fair society for all. They specifically urge acceptance of the fact that South Africans are historically, culturally, and racially entangled and therefore share the same fate.