Acceso usuarios
Mia Swart
Sometimes, one can judge a book by its cover. The strikingly beautiful cover of this book on justice and reconciliation in South Africa is more than a mere decoration. As the editors of this exciting collection on transitional justice explain, the artwork on the cover was created by modern San artist Andry Kashivi and depicts the struggle for acceptance and belonging, "for citizenship and reconciliation" in the new South Africa. The San communities of the !Xun and Khwe live on the margins of South Africa and on the brink of poverty. In the introduction to the book, the editors take trouble to explain the symbolic link between the marginalization of the San people and the quest for legal and political transformation in South Africa. The book's emphasis on the art of transformation extends beyond the description of the artwork. In quite a literal sense the book addresses (among other themes) the transformative function of art in the chapter by Carrol Clarkson entitled "Drawing the Line: Justice and the Art of Reconciliation". Clarkson analyses post-apartheid South African art, and in doing so she illustrates and explains the re-drawing of lines, specifically the "lines that reconfigure the margins of exposure of one to the other" (at 288). The inclusion of this chapter adds freshness and originality to a collection of chapters on transitional justice, a field which cannot always be said to be characterized by great originality (or intellectual vigour).
This collection, however, is vivid and attractive in many respects. It sets out to explore various facets of the transitional processes that have been underway in South Africa since the early 1990s. This topic has been subjected to extensive academic excavation - not always particularly deep or productive. The depth and variety of the contributions distinguishes this collection and makes it worth �
