Thinking about Reconciliation
Most recently Sarah Maddson has laboured to expound on the complexity of the process of reconciliation and political challenges facing societies attempting to transition either from
violence and authoritarianism to peace and democracy, or from colonialism to
post-colonialism or from internal conflicts such as the Rwandan genocide to
national healing and coexistence. Maddson conceives of reconciliation as a
process that is deeply political, and one that prioritizes the capacity to
retain and develop democratic political contest in societies that have, in
other ways, been able to resolve their conflicts. It is therefore imperative
that reconciliation be pursued within a political dispensation especially at
the local level since the other way is detrimental to sustainable peace.
Reconciliation in countries emerging
from very painful experiences such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
as well as other accumulated injustices should be politically inclusive with a
conviction that whereas the past is painful, it is possible to transform the
relations and structures that continue to divide societies. This means
fostering a thoroughgoing dialogue between the belligerents and opposing factions
with political inclusion of the prevailing political needs of the people; both
those who perpetrated the crimes and those who suffered the consequence. This
entails creative jus post bellum
initiatives aimed at bringing together perpetrators and survivors. The
reconciliation narrative should proceed within structural designs over which
individuals have no control leading to the end of impunity and assurance of
political inclusion that diffuses conflicts of greed and grievance when it
comes to governance. Reconciliation should be a process that opens up a space
for continuous political discourse between former rivals instead of covering up
the issues of contention that are a threat to their political association as
well as nation-building.
It is important to create structured
political dialogue aimed at reconciliation entailing acceptance of the risk of
politics and the opportunity it presents rather than eliding it. Reconciliation
should be directed at fostering co-existence of democratic political
expressions. According to Maddson meaningful reconciliation process occurs when
divided societies enlarge their political capabilities, accept to disagree
without violence and find new ways of respecting old adversaries.
Reconciliation is a process that in effect recognizes that in deeply divided
societies, the capacity to disagree respectively may be the most that can be
expected from conflict transformation efforts.
Thinking about Reconciliation
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
March 21, 2016
Rating:
This was very informative, I hope to study more widely Maddson views. Many thanks
ReplyDeleteSure you can look for the book, it came out in July last year. It is quite insightful. Maddson Sarah, 2015. Conflict transformation and reconciliation: Multi-level challenges in deeply divided societies. New York, Routledge.
DeleteThis was very informative, I hope to study more widely Maddson views. Many thanks
ReplyDelete