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ABSTRACT
Different kinds of epistemic injustice occur in the context of truth commissions. In this article, I will illustrate such with the example of one particular epistemic injustice that occurred during the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In their book, There was this Goat, Krog, Ratele and Mpolweni (2009) analysed the difficult reception of the testimony of Mrs Konile, during the TRC hearings. Her testimony seemed to be very incoherent, but during their research which was partially based on the truth commission archive, the authors reached a better understanding of her testimony. This research is the basis for my conceptualisation of how a truth commission archive can contribute to the redress of particular epistemic injustices that can occur during the process of an active truth commission. I show in my article the importance of Verne Harris’ archival principles of the ‘archive for justice’ and ‘hospitality to otherness’. Based on the work of Harris and other archivists forming part of the same tradition (Joan Schwartz, Terry Cook and Randall Jimerson), I further recommend that the custodians of truth commissions archives have good reason to act as activist-archivists in order to fight epistemic injustices in the context of truth commissions.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Berber Bevernage, Dagmar Hovestädt, Ulrike Luehe, Maarten Van Dyck, Erik Weber and the anonymous reviewer for their feedback and comments on previous versions of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
Dietlinde Wouters has a PhD and Master’s degree in Philosophy at the Ghent University (Belgium) and a Master in Human Rights at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina).
Notes
1 Wendy M. Duff et al., ‘Social Justice Impact of Archives: A Preliminary Investigation’, Archival Science 12 (2013): 318. ‘Justice' is an idea(l) with a long history and many (evolving) meanings. (David Miller, ‘Justice’, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/justice/). Social justice is a specific form of justice that Duff et al. define as follows:
Ideal vision that every human being is of equal and incalculable value, entitled to shared standards of freedom, equality, and respect. These standards also apply to broader social aggregations such as communities and cultural groups. Violations of these standards must be acknowledged and confronted. It specifically draws attention to inequalities of power and how they manifest in institutional arrangements and systemic inequities that further the interests of some groups at the expense of others in the distribution of material goods, social benefits, rights, protections, and opportunities. Social justice is always a process and can never be fully achieved. (Duff et al., ‘Social Justice Impact of Archives’, 324)
2 Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice : Power and the Ethics of Knowing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 1.
3 Ibid.
4 Mark Freeman, Truth Commissions and Procedural Fairness (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 18.
5 ‘Basic Principles on the Role of Archivists and Records Managers in Support of Human Rights’ (International Council on Archives (ICA)-Human Rights Working Group, 2016), 15.
6 Briony Jones and Sandra Rubli, ‘Archives for a Peaceful Future’, Essential (Bern: Swisspeace, 2013), 9; Trudy Huskamp Peterson, Final Acts: A Guide to Preserving the Records of Truth Commissions (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 1, 6.
7 Trudy Huskamp Peterson, ‘Truth and the Records of Truth Commissions’, Studien Und Quellen 30 (2004): 216.
8 Ibid., 219.
9 The organisation International Council on Archives (ICA), the Dealing with the Past team of Swisspeace and Peterson are the most important sources on the topic (e.g. Basic Principles on the Role of Archivists and Records Managers in Support of Human Rights, 2016; Briony Jones, Ingrid Oliveira, and Sandra Rubli, ‘Archives for a Peaceful Future - Case Descriptions’, Essential (Bern: Swisspeace, 2014); Briony Jones and Ingrid Oliveira, ‘Truth Commission Archives as New Democratic Spaces’, Journal of Human Rights Practice 8, no.1 (2016): 1–19; Jones and Rubli, ‘Archives for a Peaceful Future’; Peterson, ‘Truth and the Records of Truth Commissions’; Peterson, Final Acts). Note that these sources are interrelated: Peterson is currently chair of the ICA Section on Archives and Human Rights (SAHR) and also head author on the ICA principles on access to archives, and she often collaborates with the Dealing with the Past team at swisspeace as well.
10 Jones and Rubli, ‘Archives for a Peaceful Future’, 6: 21–2.
11 Peterson, Final Acts, 2.
12 Fricker, Epistemic Injustice, 1.
13 Miranda Fricker, ‘Evolving Concepts of Epistemic Injustice’, in The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice, ed. Ian James Kidd, José Medina, and Jr. Pohlhaus Gaile (New York: Routledge, 2017), 54. Note that Fricker also recognises the existence of a related kind of injustice that involves the intentional, deliberate manipulation of others’ judgements of credibility. However, she finds it important to keep these two notions separate.
14 Fricker, Epistemic Injustice, 1, 36–7.
15 Ibid., 1.
16 Wendy Sanford quoted in Fricker, Epistemic Injustice, 149.
17 Fricker, Epistemic Injustice, 149–50. Other interesting examples of hermeneutical injustices include someone suffering sexual harassment in a society that does not recognise the concept or someone having homosexual feelings in a context in which such feelings are seen as unnatural (Fricker, Epistemic Injustice, 149–50; 163–5).
18 Ibid., 47.
19 Ibid., 162.
20 Ibid., 51, 163.
21 Ibid., 46, 162.
22 Fricker, ‘Evolving Concepts of Epistemic Injustice’, 46–59, 163.
23 Dietlinde Wouters, ‘Truth Commissions: Social-Epistemological Investigations’ (Doctoral Thesis, Belgium, Ghent University, 2020), 93–110.
24 E.g. Conscriptos Detenidos Desaparecidos (Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), 1982), 3, http://www.cels.org.ar/documentos/index.php?info=documentosF&ids=3&lang=es&ss=125; Priscilla B. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Facing the Challenge of Truth Commissions (New York: Routledge, 2001), 146; Margeret Urban Walker, Moral Understanding: A Feminist Study in Ethics, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 211–34.
25 Fiona Ross, ‘Linguistic Bearings and Testimonial Practices’, Journal of Language and Politics 5, no. 1 (2006): 113.
26 Ibid.
27 Walker, Moral Understanding.
28 Ibid., 211; Dietlinde Wouters, ‘Epistemic Injustices and Truth Commissions (Submitted Manuscript)’, 2019.
29 Antjie Krog, Nosisi Mpolweni, and Kopano Ratale, There Was This Goat (Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009), 1, 5.
30 Antjie Krog was asked to cover the Truth Commission for the SABC Radio. Her experience also led to the book Country of my Skull (Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull (London: Jonathan Cape London, 1999)).
31 Krog, Mpolweni, and Ratale, There Was This Goat, 5.
32 Ibid., 40.
33 Ibid., 101.
34 Note that the original transcription contains certain typos, such as ‘scarred' at the end of the first paragraph.
35 Krog, Mpolweni, and Ratale, There Was This Goat, 13.
36 Ibid., 16.
37 Lars Buur makes a similar point by explaining that victim’s personal experiences were ‘decontextualised' and fit in the new national timeline and chronology as presented by the TRC (Lars Buur, ‘Institutionalising Truth. Victims, Perpetrators and Professionals in the Everyday Work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ (Doctoral Thesis, Denmark, Aarhus University, 2000), 15–21).
38 Krog, Mpolweni, and Ratale, There Was This Goat, 56.
39 Ibid., 56.
40 Ibid., 56, 80–82.
41 Ibid., 80.
42 Ibid., 56.
43 Ibid., 43, 101.
44 Vittorio Bufacchi, ‘Knowing Violence: Testimony, Trust and Truth’, Association Revue Internationale de Philosophie 3 (2013): 286.
45 Berber Bevernage, ‘“We Victims and Survivors Declare the Past to Be in the Present”: Time, Historical (In)Justice and the Irrevocable’ (2009).
46 Krog, Mpolweni, and Ratale, There Was This Goat, 46, 47, 55, 75, 121.
47 Ibid., 51.
48 Ibid., 51, 53, 170, 176.
49 Ibid., 169–70.
50 Ibid., 94.
51 Ibid., 121–73.
52 Ibid., 91.
53 For literature on access (policy) of archives seef or example Peterson, Final Acts; Peterson, ‘Truth and the Records of Truth Commissions’, 215–26.
54 For a brief overview: Terry Cook, ‘What Is Past Is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift’, Archivaria 43 (1997): 17–63; Graham Stinnett, ‘Archival Landscape: Archives and Human Rights’, Progressive Librarian 32 (2008): 10–20.
55 Verne Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’, Archival Science 2 (2002): 65, 77, 83; Joan Schwartz and Terry Cook, ‘Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory’, Archival Science 2 (2002): 1–2.
56 Harris worked for the National Archives in South Africa and, from 1995 until April 2001, he was responsible for the liaison between the TRC and the National Archives. He also formed part of the TRC investigation team on the special investigation into records destruction during the Apartheid regime. Later he directed the South African History Archive’s freedom of information program (Verne Harris, Archives and Justice (Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 2007), 290.) Nowadays, Harris is Head of the Leadership and Knowledge Development of the Nelson Mandela Foundation (https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/the-team).
57 Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’, 63–5.
58 Trudy Huskamp Peterson, ‘Archives Against Amnesia’, Politobis 50, no. 3 (2010): 123–30.
59 Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’; Harris, Archives and Justice; Schwartz and Cook, ‘Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory’.
60 Verne Harris, ‘Seeing (in) Blindness: South Africa, Archives and Passion for Justice’ (Ghandi-Luthuli Documentation Centre, 2001), 6, Ghandi-Luthuli Documentation Centre, http://scnc.ukzn.ac.za/doc/LibArchMus/Arch/Harris_V_Freedom_of_Information_in_SA_Archives_for_justice.pdf; Harris, Archives and Justice, 241, 249.
61 Harris, Archives and Justice, 249.
62 Ibid., 147, 241.
63 Ibid., 157.
64 Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’, 85.
65 Ann Laura Stoler, ‘Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance’, Archival Science 2 (2002): 87–90.
66 Schwartz and Cook, ‘Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory’, 1.
67 Harris, Archives and Justice, 301.
68 Verne Harris, Exploring Archives: An Introduction to Archival Ideas and Practice in South Africa (Pretoria: National Archives of South Africa, 2000), 77–80; Harris, Archives and Justice, 242.
69 Harris, Archives and Justice, 248. According to Jimerson, this call of justice is related to Nelson Mandela’s, more general, call of justice that formed part of his inauguration speech as President of South Africa: ‘Let there be justice for all'. (Randall Jimerson, ‘Archivists and Social Responsibility: A Response to Mark Greene’, The American Archivist 76, no. 2 (2013): 336.)
70 Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’, 85; Harris, Archives and Justice, 257–8.
71 Jimerson defends a less rigid standpoint. He agrees with Harris that the call of justice is a legitimate calling for individuals and for the profession as a whole. However, he states that the decision to answer the call of justice is a matter of personal choice that cannot be imposed on individual archivists. (Jimerson, ‘Archivists and Social Responsibility: A Response to Mark Greene’, 336.)
72 Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’, 85; Harris, Archives and Justice, 257–8. Harris’ use of the concepts of power, justice and hospitality are clear references to the work of Jacques Derrida. He was not only inspired by the work of Derrida, Harris thoroughly studied his work, he dedicated various chapters and articles to Derrida’s work and he met Derrida to discuss their work.
73 Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’, 85–6.
74 Harris, Archives and Justice, 261.
75 Ibid., 261.
76 Ibid., 257; Harris, ‘Seeing (in) Blindness: South Africa, Archives and Passion for Justice’, 11.
77 Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’, 86.
78 We can refer here to the use-value of records, a concept introduced by Theodore R. Schellenberg in the 1950s. According to Schellenberg, records have primary and secondary values. While the primary value refers to the importance of records to their original creator, the secondary value of records refers to their use to subsequent researchers (use-value). Archivist play a crucial role by determining the use-value and this value is an important criterion for them to adopt the records in their archive. As a reaction on this use-based archives, emerged new societal approaches that propose the idea that broader society should be reflected in the archive. A truth commission archive that follows the principle of ‘hospitality to otherness’ seems to combine both perspectives. (Cook, ‘What Is Past Is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift’, 42–3; Stinnett, ‘Archival Landscape: Archives and Human Rights’, 13, 16).
79 See for example The Politics of Recognition of Charles Taylor (1994) for a discussion of the importance of (mis)recognition for the shaping of our identity as a person or a group. (‘The Politics of Recognition’, in Multiculturalism. Examining the Politics of Recognition, ed. Amy Gutman (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), 25–73.)
80 Jimerson, ‘Archivists and Social Responsibility: A Response to Mark Greene’, 344; Duff et al., ‘Social Justice Impact of Archives’.
81 Melanie Altanian, ‘Archives Against Genocide Denialism’ (Swisspeace, 2017), 25, swisspeace.ch/assets/publications/downloads/Working-Papers/ee36f55d94/Archives-against-Genocide-Denialism-Working-Paper-2017-swisspeace-melanie_altanian.pdf; Harris, Archives and Justice, 247.
82 Jimerson, ‘Archives for All: Professional Responsibility and Social Justice’, 254–6.
83 Schwartz and Cook, ‘Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory’, 1.
84 Harris, ‘The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa’; Harris, Archives and Justice.
85 Randall Jimerson, ‘Archives for All: Professional Responsibility and Social Justice’, The American Archivist 70 (2007): 270–72.
86 Jimerson, ‘Archivists and Social Responsibility: A Response to Mark Greene’, 337.
87 Heather Douglas, ‘The Irreducible Complexity of Objectivity’, Synthese 138, no. 3 (2004): 459–61.
88 Not everyone scholar or archivist agrees with this opinion. For example, Mark Green defends the opposite view: that objectivity is impossible but archivists should strive to be neutral (Jimerson, ‘Archivists and Social Responsibility: A Response to Mark Greene’, 338.)
89 Douglas, ‘The Irreducible Complexity of Objectivity’, 459.