Forgiveness and Democracy in South Africa-Desmond Tutu, Antjie Krog, and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela in Conversation with Hannah Arendt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3464339 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anthony Balcomb (University of KwaZulu-Natal, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 215 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-10 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel16020215 |
| OpenAlex | W4407320763 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 5 |
The demise of apartheid as a political policy of institutionalized racism and the advent of the so-called "New South Africa" based on constitutional democracy presented a huge, almost impossible, challenge of forgiveness and reconciliation among the South African people. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, among others, led the way, but the capacity of the ordinary people of South Africa to forgive their oppressors has been largely responsible for the success of the democratic project. This begs the questions of what political forgiveness is, why it is important for the South African democracy to succeed, and how the people were able to do it. Three leading South African exponents of the topic of forgiveness-Desmond Tutu, Antjie Krog, and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela-are put into conversation with a leading European exponent, Hannah Arendt. Arendt uses the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth to formulate her understanding of political forgiveness and the others the highly contested but deeply engrained, notoriously elusive, and endlessly prolific African philosophy of Ubuntu, though they each have their different ways of reframing it. Other Western interlocutors are briefly introduced to bring different dimensions to the conversation and highlight the sharp contrast between Western and African ontologies, and the agonistic nature of the new South African democracy is mooted
Conversation · Democracy · Forgiveness · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Gender Studies · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa · Philosophy · Religious studies · South African History and Culture
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |