The Impossible Machine

About this book

"Adam Sitze meticulously traces the origins of South Africa{u2019}s Truth and Reconciliation Commission back to two well-established instruments of colonial and imperial governance: the jurisprudence of indemnity and the Commission of Inquiry. This genealogy provides a fresh, though counterintuitive, understanding of the TRC{u2019}s legal, political, and cultural importance. The TRC{u2019}s genius, Sitze contends, is not the substitution of 'forgiving' restorative justice for 'strict' legal justice but, rather, the innovative adaptation of colonial law, sovereignty, and government. However, this approach also contains a potential liability: if the TRC{u2019}s origins are forgotten, the very enterprise intended to overturn the jurisprudence of colonial rule may perpetuate it. In sum, Sitze proposes a provocative new means by which South Africa{u2019}s Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be understood and evaluated"--Page [i].