April 5 1999

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Five years ago, following the end of apartheid and the beginning of a new country, South Africans embarked on a journey of dealing with its past in a way that empowered its future. South Africans undertook an extraordinary experiment by establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to face the truth of the past (CT, "How Much Truth Can We Take?" Feb. 9, 1998). People around the world have watched its proceedings carefully, hoping to discover a process whereby people could begin to heal the open, festering wounds of the past. Last October, the TRC delivered its final report to President Nelson Mandela. Though the TRC will continue to hold amnesty hearings for perpetrators who have come forward, its primary work has been completed.

What did it accomplish? Did it succeed in finding out the truth? Did the TRC's offer of amnesty, linking for the first time the aim of reconciliation with the work of a truth commission, make a significant difference? Has the work of the TRC helped to shape the emergence of a new South Africa?

During the week of March 30, people will be offered an opportunity to reflect on these questions by watching a compelling two-hour PBS special on the work of the TRC, entitled Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers. The show is difficult to watch, because we are confronted with painful testimonies of apartheid's destructiveness, graphic examples that detail the techniques of torture and killing, pictures of rooms where tortures and murders were carried out. The show tests the level of how much truth we can take. One cannot help wondering how Tutu, the TRC commissioners, and the people who actually lived through apartheid have been able to sustain themselves through ...