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24"x 54" Diptych Oil on Canvas (2002) $2485
A
Culture of Human Rights
When South Africa made the transition from apartheid to majority rule
there was a shift to full participatory democracy. The legacy of
oppression and human rights violations had to be transformed into a
society characterized by a culture of human rights. The new
government, under President Nelson Mandela, represented a precarious and
fragile unity. The new Constitution embraced respect for the rule of
law that would apply equally to all South Africans.
The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, out of which the
TRC process emerged, was to be the bridge to this new society based on a
culture of human rights and justice. The TRC process sought to
facilitate acknowledgement of the past and accountability and
responsibility for the conditions and crimes of apartheid and the struggle
for liberation.
“Preserving the history of a peoples oppression is part of their
heritage and the establishment of objective truth is part of the struggle
for the control of history.”
Colin Bundy, University of Cape Town, 1968
