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Volumes page Volume XVI (2002)
TRUTH
IN POLITICS
Rhetorical Approaches to
Democratic Deliberation in Africa and beyond
Philippe-Joseph
Salazar, Sanya Osha, Wim van Binsbergen
(Eds.)
|
The
purpose of this volume is to try and acclimatize “rhetoric” (“the
faculty of observing in any given case the available means of
persuasion” – Aristotle) to the South African scene and the African
scene at large, and to reflect on truth in politics. Why? Because
politics in a democracy is a contest of words about competing truths. No
government ought ever to believe that they have “the truth”. They
are merely the sum total of what Aristotle presents as some sort of
“picnic”: at the democratic table we all bring our own food to make
the party successful, by the very variety of condiments and diversity of
foodstuffs. To be democratic citizens involves the formidable task of
learning to accept that each of us, however passionate we are about
“what we believe”, and hold to be “true”, may and will be untrue
for another citizen. We therefore have to argue, to deliberate, to
enter, each of us at our own level, into a contest of words and beliefs.
Democracy is about competing “truths”. This is why “rhetoric”
– the study of public deliberation and the training in public debate
and argumentation – is part of democracy in development.
Taking
their lead from the work of South Africa’s 1994-1998 Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, these contributions by intercontinental
scholars in rhetoric, other branches of philosophy, African Studies,
theology, intercultural communication and law, try to bring home the
notion that rhetoric can be a powerful agent for democracy, an effective
tool for citizen’s empowerment, a site for liberating thought. They
also explore the possibilities and limitations of African applications
of rhetoric, in a general context of globalized intercultural knowledge
production, historic African rhetorical and constitutional practices,
and the African experience under colonial and postcolonial conditions. |
Special
Issue of
QUEST
An
African Journal of Philosophy /
Revue
Africaine de Philosophie
Vol.
XVI, No. 1-2, 2002
(actual
date of publication: March, 2004)
© 2004 Quest: An African Journal of
Philosophy / Revue Africaine de Philosophie TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 5
Foreword and Acknowledgments: Democratic Rhetoric
Philippe-Joseph Salazar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Introductory Essay: Politics of Memory – How to Treat Hate
Barbara Cassin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Part One: Around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Rhetoric and Public Good
Chapter 1. Learning to Live Together with Bad Memories
Charles Villa-Vicencio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 2. Works of Faith, Faith of the Works: A Reflection on the Truth and Justification of Forgiveness
Erik Doxtader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Chapter 3. Reconstructing the Past between Trials and History: The TRC Experience as “Remembrance Space”
Andrea Lollini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Chapter 4. Rhetoric and Truth: The South African Scene
Yehoshua Gitay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
Part Two: Political Power and Rhetorical Democracy
Chapter 5. The Consequences of Saying “No No No”: The Political Demise of Mrs Thatcher
Charles Calder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Chapter 6. Ethics and Revisionism in Nigerian Governance
Sanya Osha
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 82
Chapter 7. Self-Fashioning in Political Turmoil: Power, Truth and Rhetoric in Cicero
Johnson Segun Ige . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94
Chapter 8. Sovereign Bodies, Sovereign States and the Problem of Torture
Lisa Hajjar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 108
Part Three: In the Sphere of Public Deliberation
Chapter 9. Re-Claiming Identity as Truth: On the Politics of African Renaissance
Reingard Nethersole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Chapter 10. “Truth and History” in the Post-Apartheid South African Context
Lydia Samarbakhsh-Liberge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Chapter 11. May I have your Faith? Truth, Media and Politics
Johann Rossouw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Chapter 12. The Judge and the People: Deliberating on True Land Claims
Philippe-Joseph Salazar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178
Chapter 13. Truth in Politics, and the Congolese Political Sphere
Abel Kouvouama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186
Chapter 14. Discursive Plurality: Negotiating Cultural Identities in Public Democratic Dialogue
Mary Jane Collier and Darrin Hicks . . . . . . . . . . 197
Part Four: Conclusion
Conclusion: Truth in Politics – Ethical Argument, Ethical Knowledge, and Ethical Truth
Eugene Garver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Postscript: Aristotle in Africa – Towards a Comparative Africanist reading of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Wim van Binsbergen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
About the Contributors
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .273 return to
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