Liberia Transitional Justice Forum
Thoughts from Cape Town Immersion Fellowship Program
By: Lawrence T. Randall
This forum is long overdue. Let me, as a matter of principle, insist that the creation of this forum is not an original idea. In fact, Aaron Weah of the International Center for Transitional Justice, ICTJ Monrovia Office and I have been tolling with the idea of bringing young practitioners working in the field of transitional justice in Liberia together in some form of informal discourse. The manner, form and shape that discourse would eventually take were left hanging in the air. Unusually swarmed with routine busy schedules, those thoughts slipped into oblivion.
An invitation from the ICTJ to attend its Cape Town Fellowship on Transitional Justice can be fairly termed the defining moment for reclaiming the imagery that buzzed through our heads when Aaron and I pondered the absence of any contemporary journal on this vast field that was unfolding in Liberia. Come to think of it, we have over a dozen young Liberians that have graduated from some form of orientation in various subjects and thematic areas under this arena, yet, there’s no dedicated intellectual space for these practitioners to review and analyze regional and global trends, new concepts and controversies, and emerging challenges and opportunities facing the sector. In this edition, we will focus large measure on the overall transitional justice debate and how our South African study has affected our perception about the subject. The journey begins.
We start by stressing that even before Immersion, we had some functional definition of transitional justice but the first day of the course has provided an array of contexts by which we are now able to mirror, analyze and appreciate the various underlying issues and debates underpinning the field’s development in the last decade.
For starters, arriving in Cape Town should be quite amazing especially with no prior visits to the developed world. And even with such experience, you are left baffled by the extent to which South Africans have made their tax dollars work. Ask those that have been here and they tell you first hand. The progress notwithstanding, it is instructive to note that sometimes the beauty of this vast and diverse country can prove deceptive. For instance, you might be inclined to believe that hunger and poverty are a media creation, judging by the chain of food stores few blocks away from you. It will be a fatal judgment to conclude that the country is so peaceful reading from your upscale apartment in downtown Cape Town. The many opposite complexions you find elsewhere are the heart of South Africa’s diversity.
It should be noted however, that South Africa minus crime and the glaring disparity in inequality, and standard of living between communities is a place worth living. Cape Town especially has a striking distinction. Cape Town is a peninsula city covered by nature’s bare beauty which descends from the overlooking mountains and provides the scenery you just can’t find in a metropolitan area. The physical, human, structural and material scar left by apartheid is all but visible. Few meters from the Airport, we are greeted by the paradox of prosperity. Two communities divided by a stretch of two lane roads heading to the city center. One very developed and the other, a shanty town typical of Monrovia’s West Point ghetto. These communities lie opposite to each other just about a kilometer from Cape Town Airport. You find this kind of disparity widespread across the country and of course in all fairness to South Africans, it will require some additional time to address these issues of structural inequalities that even very developed countries like the US are still haunted by. Katrina might have just been a tip of the iceberg.
We will probably need a more detailed essay to capture our impression of life in South Africa in general, the case of crime, silent and unspoken discrimination and the relics of the apartheid period. To begin delving in more detail would mean reinventing a discussion so widely articulated by reputed scholars and full time investigative journalists. We move on and focus the forum on the matter most pressing – transitional justice.
Day 1 should have been a basis. Was it really? In some respect, I say yes. Dr. Alex Boraine, you might not be very conversant with this soft speaking walking encyclopedia if you are far removed from the transitional justice community, but simply put, he is a TJ egghead. Dr. Boraine is founder of ICTJ and he brings enormous reputation to this fast growing organization simply based on work and merits. An astute intellectual and calmly intelligently teacher, Dr. Boraine waves through the etymology of Transitional Justice in ways no ordinary scholar would do. He brings the context closer and involves students in carving the basic fundamentals to this sometime controversial cliche “Transitional Justice” that has resonated so well since its introduction as a field of concentration. We got to understand that Transitional Justice is in fact a evolving concept which has rightly sought to claim legitimacy in the last few decades not merely for its relevance as a field but its immense ability to restore fractured societies, re-institutionalize the culture of accountability and promote as in the case of nascent democracies, tenets of good governance the absence of which has become somewhat rational pretext for perpetrators of violence to wage war and instigate social unrest. We were able to establish some historical context of the field’s emergence and how a host of issues affected its development. From Dr. Boraine‘s perspective, I would say we got a deal.
By mid-day, the base was being energized and reading from my Liberian colleague Caroline Bowah, expectations were being met. She was electrified and as a typical TJ practitioner, she was active to the roof and could be seen expressly satisfied with the deal. The base was further consolidated with the introduction of an almost informal lecture from reputed historian and writer, Dr. Paige Arthur who discussed the history, theory, principles and practice of transitional justice from the skin surface. I had actually been one of few fellows that thought to read Arthur’s electrifying thirty-five page essay on TJ history and was of course very impressed with her mastery of the subject and the energy she deployed in collating a vast array of documentations and interviews. I was in anticipation, like a thirsty student waiting to be filled from the master’s flowing fountain of knowledge. My eagerness could be detected and in fact, prior to her presentation I hitched a chat outside the main conference venue and began explaining my reading of her article and expressly indicated my expectations. She was clear and straight. She could not deliver the issues the way and depth I would have loved considering time constraints, the mix of participants and of course the course objectives were all limitations to such narrative’s eloquent delivery.
So, all said and done this was not to be. And to cause further upset to her strategy, Dr. Borain had ventured into grounds reserved for her, looking at the subjects and issues that were outlined in the course itinerary. She had to invent a delivery mode of her own. And true to her credit, she thought to make her presentation more participatory and user friendly. The lectures that I hoped for was all in summary and the bulk was shifted to the participants to carve their path. Think, think and rationalize. I was disappointed but in some measure she resonates as an intelligent instructor knowing the mood and knowing how to deploy her methodology. Half of the session was group work, laying the basis for the definition of key terms and providing the construct for the discourse, which to be honest, was already dissected by her predecessor. We were low on time, as the various exercises were involving more time than expected and then came our shuttle. Time is up. You got to go.
Was the deal complete? I asked my colleague, sensing some uneasiness and lack of gusto. “Well, lets wait for part II tomorrow” she said calmly. After all and true to Paige Arthur’s credit, we need to wait and see.
Have to check the clinic for some ear scan and see you on Day 2, when the forum returns. Good bye from sweet Cape Town.
___________________
Mr. Lawrence T. Randall is a Liberian journalist who lives and works in Monrovia, the country's capital. Mr. Randall is also Executive Director of the Liberia Media Center (LMC), Liberia's biggest local non-governmental organization that works to build the capacities of local journalists and media institutions.
Thoughts from Cape Town Immersion Fellowship Program
By: Lawrence T. Randall
This forum is long overdue. Let me, as a matter of principle, insist that the creation of this forum is not an original idea. In fact, Aaron Weah of the International Center for Transitional Justice, ICTJ Monrovia Office and I have been tolling with the idea of bringing young practitioners working in the field of transitional justice in Liberia together in some form of informal discourse. The manner, form and shape that discourse would eventually take were left hanging in the air. Unusually swarmed with routine busy schedules, those thoughts slipped into oblivion.
An invitation from the ICTJ to attend its Cape Town Fellowship on Transitional Justice can be fairly termed the defining moment for reclaiming the imagery that buzzed through our heads when Aaron and I pondered the absence of any contemporary journal on this vast field that was unfolding in Liberia. Come to think of it, we have over a dozen young Liberians that have graduated from some form of orientation in various subjects and thematic areas under this arena, yet, there’s no dedicated intellectual space for these practitioners to review and analyze regional and global trends, new concepts and controversies, and emerging challenges and opportunities facing the sector. In this edition, we will focus large measure on the overall transitional justice debate and how our South African study has affected our perception about the subject. The journey begins.
We start by stressing that even before Immersion, we had some functional definition of transitional justice but the first day of the course has provided an array of contexts by which we are now able to mirror, analyze and appreciate the various underlying issues and debates underpinning the field’s development in the last decade.
For starters, arriving in Cape Town should be quite amazing especially with no prior visits to the developed world. And even with such experience, you are left baffled by the extent to which South Africans have made their tax dollars work. Ask those that have been here and they tell you first hand. The progress notwithstanding, it is instructive to note that sometimes the beauty of this vast and diverse country can prove deceptive. For instance, you might be inclined to believe that hunger and poverty are a media creation, judging by the chain of food stores few blocks away from you. It will be a fatal judgment to conclude that the country is so peaceful reading from your upscale apartment in downtown Cape Town. The many opposite complexions you find elsewhere are the heart of South Africa’s diversity.
It should be noted however, that South Africa minus crime and the glaring disparity in inequality, and standard of living between communities is a place worth living. Cape Town especially has a striking distinction. Cape Town is a peninsula city covered by nature’s bare beauty which descends from the overlooking mountains and provides the scenery you just can’t find in a metropolitan area. The physical, human, structural and material scar left by apartheid is all but visible. Few meters from the Airport, we are greeted by the paradox of prosperity. Two communities divided by a stretch of two lane roads heading to the city center. One very developed and the other, a shanty town typical of Monrovia’s West Point ghetto. These communities lie opposite to each other just about a kilometer from Cape Town Airport. You find this kind of disparity widespread across the country and of course in all fairness to South Africans, it will require some additional time to address these issues of structural inequalities that even very developed countries like the US are still haunted by. Katrina might have just been a tip of the iceberg.
We will probably need a more detailed essay to capture our impression of life in South Africa in general, the case of crime, silent and unspoken discrimination and the relics of the apartheid period. To begin delving in more detail would mean reinventing a discussion so widely articulated by reputed scholars and full time investigative journalists. We move on and focus the forum on the matter most pressing – transitional justice.
Day 1 should have been a basis. Was it really? In some respect, I say yes. Dr. Alex Boraine, you might not be very conversant with this soft speaking walking encyclopedia if you are far removed from the transitional justice community, but simply put, he is a TJ egghead. Dr. Boraine is founder of ICTJ and he brings enormous reputation to this fast growing organization simply based on work and merits. An astute intellectual and calmly intelligently teacher, Dr. Boraine waves through the etymology of Transitional Justice in ways no ordinary scholar would do. He brings the context closer and involves students in carving the basic fundamentals to this sometime controversial cliche “Transitional Justice” that has resonated so well since its introduction as a field of concentration. We got to understand that Transitional Justice is in fact a evolving concept which has rightly sought to claim legitimacy in the last few decades not merely for its relevance as a field but its immense ability to restore fractured societies, re-institutionalize the culture of accountability and promote as in the case of nascent democracies, tenets of good governance the absence of which has become somewhat rational pretext for perpetrators of violence to wage war and instigate social unrest. We were able to establish some historical context of the field’s emergence and how a host of issues affected its development. From Dr. Boraine‘s perspective, I would say we got a deal.
By mid-day, the base was being energized and reading from my Liberian colleague Caroline Bowah, expectations were being met. She was electrified and as a typical TJ practitioner, she was active to the roof and could be seen expressly satisfied with the deal. The base was further consolidated with the introduction of an almost informal lecture from reputed historian and writer, Dr. Paige Arthur who discussed the history, theory, principles and practice of transitional justice from the skin surface. I had actually been one of few fellows that thought to read Arthur’s electrifying thirty-five page essay on TJ history and was of course very impressed with her mastery of the subject and the energy she deployed in collating a vast array of documentations and interviews. I was in anticipation, like a thirsty student waiting to be filled from the master’s flowing fountain of knowledge. My eagerness could be detected and in fact, prior to her presentation I hitched a chat outside the main conference venue and began explaining my reading of her article and expressly indicated my expectations. She was clear and straight. She could not deliver the issues the way and depth I would have loved considering time constraints, the mix of participants and of course the course objectives were all limitations to such narrative’s eloquent delivery.
So, all said and done this was not to be. And to cause further upset to her strategy, Dr. Borain had ventured into grounds reserved for her, looking at the subjects and issues that were outlined in the course itinerary. She had to invent a delivery mode of her own. And true to her credit, she thought to make her presentation more participatory and user friendly. The lectures that I hoped for was all in summary and the bulk was shifted to the participants to carve their path. Think, think and rationalize. I was disappointed but in some measure she resonates as an intelligent instructor knowing the mood and knowing how to deploy her methodology. Half of the session was group work, laying the basis for the definition of key terms and providing the construct for the discourse, which to be honest, was already dissected by her predecessor. We were low on time, as the various exercises were involving more time than expected and then came our shuttle. Time is up. You got to go.
Was the deal complete? I asked my colleague, sensing some uneasiness and lack of gusto. “Well, lets wait for part II tomorrow” she said calmly. After all and true to Paige Arthur’s credit, we need to wait and see.
Have to check the clinic for some ear scan and see you on Day 2, when the forum returns. Good bye from sweet Cape Town.
___________________
Mr. Lawrence T. Randall is a Liberian journalist who lives and works in Monrovia, the country's capital. Mr. Randall is also Executive Director of the Liberia Media Center (LMC), Liberia's biggest local non-governmental organization that works to build the capacities of local journalists and media institutions.
