Engaging honestly with the past

THE QUESTION of how to engage in an honest discussion about a country’s past will be the focus of a public talk in Nicosia on Tuesday by Piers Pigou, a Senior Associate for the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).

As South Africa marks exactly 16 years of its new democracy, Pigou will examine how the country has approached addressing the legacies and challenges presented by its past conflicts, looking among other things at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and efforts to document and archive the crimes of apartheid.

Having worked as a member of the TRC’s investigation unit, Pigou spent three years from 2006 as director of the South African History Archive (SAHA).

He told the Mail that as SAHA’s director, it was in his job description to question official versions of history and to question perspectives.

“Particular incidents will have different interpretations depending on one’s perspective or point of view. History is not definitively right or wrong. It should contain different perspectives; it is a process which needs to allow different views to co-exist. In a sense, history is an argument.”

Pigou thinks truth commissions can offer a “process for making the transition to coming to terms with one’s past – but they aren’t a self-contained answer”.

“At best, they offer a framework for engaging with the past – they provide the bones, but not the flesh.”

Since politicians often want to contain the truth rather than explore it, Pigou believes that “putting the flesh on the bones” is a task that civil society must take on, in order “to challenge the past and those that want to smother it. It can get nasty; it’s a struggle. But who can argue publicly against the building of an open, democratic culture?”

• Reaching Back, Looking Forward?, a public talk co-organised by the ICTJ, the PRIO Cyprus Centre and the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research: 6.30pm, Tuesday, April 27, at the Goethe Centre, Nicosia Buffer Zone.