Religion, memory and reconciliation in the new South Africa: an African interpretation
South Africa is faced with the challenge of reconciling the memory of the past. The widespread desire to live in peace exists in tension of two extreme possibilities: either to take refuge in amnesia by forgetting the past and moving forward or to remember by making rigid recourse to the past and paralysing the present. These two extreme positions find expression in the collectivity of the community and the nation state. The victim of their tension is the individual in the form of identity crisis as a result of disfigurement. This thesis examines this tension and offers the African marriage covenant as a multi-dimensional model for memory and reconciliation for resolving this tension. Having introduced the thesis in Chapter One, Chapter Two stipulates African hermeneutics of memory and African marriage covenant as its methodology and analytical tool respectively. Chapter Three analyses the different aspects of memory as embodied in the African marriage covenant in terms of meaning and understanding, forms and types and preservation. Similar analysis of identity formation is in Chapter Four. Chapter Five discusses the relationship between memory, truth and healing. Chapter Six postulates memory as the true means for reconciliation. Concluding the thesis, Chapter Seven advances important features and implications of the African marriage covenant for memory and reconciliation in South Africa.
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