Forgiveness and the Practice of Compromise in Post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This chapter examines one of the mediators of compromise, the capacity for forgiveness. Three dominant understandings of forgiveness emerged from the narratives of South African victims of human rights violations interviewed for this research: religious forgiveness, secular forgiveness, and forgiveness as coping. While there were relatively high levels of forgiveness among the victims interviewed for this study, personal or interpersonal forgiveness is not a necessary condition for the practice of compromise, whereas third-party forgiveness is. What is more, the chapter demonstrates that forgiveness is contingent on senses of reciprocity, the fairness of the peace process, and contemporary experiences of social justice, and can wane or be withdrawn even years after the formal end of violence. Contrary to a supposed linear temporality of peace processes within which healing takes place progressively such that forgiveness and trust increase with the passage of time, contemporary victimisation experiences can bring back negative emotions about the past that can shape individuals’ capacity for forgiveness. The conditions that sustain forgiveness therefore need to be continually supported.