Africa’s Transitional Justice Policy Making

While Africa has rich experience in pursuing transitional justice, it is seen for the most part as a site for implementation of the mainstream model that draws on a liberal theory of peace and justice1 with its emphasis on liberal traditions of accountability.2 Indeed, despite the influence of South Africa’s approach to this field,3 the role of Africa in the production of knowledge with respect to the discourse on and practice of transitional justice is characterized in the main by the importation or use of ‘alien knowledge, narrative and practice.’4 The forms of ‘expert’ knowledge which are usually promoted through transitional justice tend to be legal, foreign and based on models to be replicated elsewhere.5 In this context, the potential of Africa to exercise epistemic agency has as a result been limited. Unable to meet ‘the degree of intellectual rigor’ required ‘to unravel the complex

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