Paper short abstract:

Reconciliation mechanisms in transitional justice have emerged as a burden to the aggrieved and they ultimately obfuscate the debate on reparations and atonement.

Paper long abstract:

Transitional justice mechanisms have emerged in several dozen African countries since the early 1990s under various forms combining prosecutions, truth-seeking, reconciliation, reparations, or reform of judicial and security systems (ICTJ, 2009). These mechanisms have left a trail of complex legacies. Using a multidisciplinary approach drawn from political science, international law, and postcolonial studies, this paper seeks to critically engage with the idea of reconciliation in truth commissions. It argues that reconciliation mechanisms have emerged as a burden to the aggrieved and they ultimately obfuscate the debate on reparations and atonement. The reconciliation agenda, driven by a hunger for closure and the urge to unburden the memory through a humanistic ethos, also informs the relation between African states and their former colonizers, which resonates with Soyinka (1999)'s criticism of Senghor's negritude as the equivalent of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.