South African Post–Apartheid Transitional Remembrance Policy (1994–1999)

Abstract

The paper presents results of the qualitative–to–quantitative narrative analysis of the transitional remembrance policy in South Africa during Nelson R. Mandela’s presidency. It refers to findings on the structure of political applications of historical interpretations to the issue of national identity reconstruction during democratisation. Therefore, the paper considers a degree in which remembrance story–telling was used to legitimise, justify, explain and promote the Rainbow Nation, the inclusive and non–racial vision of South Africa’s ’ideal self’ based on Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s theology of Ubuntu hoping. It investigated these relationships on eight levels – legitimisation of new elites, presence of former elites, transitional justice, social costs of transformations, promotion of new standards, the symbolic roles of democratisation, need for national unity and the new state’s identity in international politics. Moreover, the paper introduces a draft comparison with other cases of transitional remembrance policy – Chile, Estonia, Georgia, Poland and Spain – and it offers the structural model of the use of historical interpretations in South African transition, as well as discussing it with reference to the general model of the transitional remembrance policy.

Words that Wound: Rethinking Online Hate Speech in South Africa

“…2 Having observed the brutality of the Rwandan genocide triggered by inflammatory statement, South Africa and the African community need to pay closer attention to the inherent worth of every individual (Mathabane 2002). This inherent dignity clearly provides justification for restricting the 'right' of the chauvinistic speaker to rant prejudicial words (Wawrzynski & Stanco-Wawrzynska 2016). Allowing inflammatory statement to flourish may not only harm the victim, but the speaker as well.…”

“…Some social scientists have argued that due to South Africa's checkered past, most citizens grapple with issues relating to racial or ethnic tensions (Moran 2005;Wawrzynski & Stanco-Wawrzynska 2016). On one level, South Africans believe in a set of mantra which perceives discrimination and racism as offensive.…”

“…All men are equal and the national values are highly non-discriminatory and race blind (Bell 2008). South Africans, therefore, resolve to ensure the full realisation of Desmond Tutu's 'rainbow nation' and, thus, feel disappointed when they fail in this respect (Wawrzynski & Stanco-Wawrzynska 2016).…”

“…While the evolution of the Internet has created space for expression, the use of this medium to incite hatred could be considered as one of the major setbacks to the advancement of human rights in the 21 st century (Schraub 2016). Some of these crimes span from hacking, pranks and hoaxes, scams, financial and consumer fraud, threats to identity theft (Wawrzynski & Stanco-Wawrzynska 2016). There are a number of platforms available on cyberspace for individuals wishing to make life unbearable for their targets.…”

Diplomacy in the ‘Age of Trauma’

“…16-17). However, as we have noticed in the case of postapartheid South Africa, there are countries, in which addressing historical traumas and injustices promotes less commitment to international relations, what Douglas J. Becker missed in the chapter on memory and trauma in foreign policy-making (Wawrzyński & Stańco-Wawrzyńska, 2016). In fact, the authors also missed valuable findings presented by Dominique Moïsi (2009) in his study on different strategies of coping with (politicised and collective) trauma in international politics.…”