International Journal of Transitional Justice Advance Access originally published online on August 10, 2007
International Journal of Transitional Justice 2007 1(2):183-207; doi:10.1093/ijtj/ijm008
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press.
Memory Frictions: Localizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone
* Associate Professor of Anthropology, Tufts University, USA. E-mail: rosalind.shaw{at}tufts.edu
This paper concerns the frictions of engagement when transitional justice mechanisms are implemented in local contexts. My focus is the practice of truth-telling as part of a global paradigm of redemptive memory. I first trace the genealogy of this paradigm, examining how it came to appear ‘natural’ and ‘universal.’ Second, I explore struggles over memory that ensued when Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) assertively promoted this paradigm in a region in which alternative memory techniques reflected popular priorities in an unstable context of ‘no peace, no war.’ These struggles were rooted not only in the contested content of memories, but also in a perceived incommensurability between contrasting memory projects believed to have divergent implications for processes of reconstruction. Finally, I examine the significance of reparations both for local practices of post-war memory and for the local effectiveness of the TRC.
1 My field research visits to Sierra Leone from 2001 to 2004 were funded by Tufts University's Faculty Research Awards Committee (2001, 2002 and 2003), the Mellon-MIT Inter-University Program on NGOs and Forced Migration (2001 and 2003), the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation (2002), a Research and Writing Award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2004) and the United States Institute of Peace (2004). Earlier drafts of this article were written when I held a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC (2003–04), a MacArthur Research and Writing Award (2004–05) and a nonstipendiary Fellowship at Harvard University's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy (2004–05). I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all Sierra Leoneans who have shared their experiences of the war and of the TRC with me; to the staff and Commissioners of Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, who were unfailingly generous with their help; to Rafael Abiem, Andreas Brandstatter and Bjorn Pettersson of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL); to Monsignor George Biguzzi, Bishop of Makeni; and to Virginia Bouvier of the United States Institute of Peace. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the MIT International Studies Center Migration Seminar, the University of Chicago's Anthropology Seminar, the University of Michigan's Africa Workshop, the United States Institute of Peace, Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and Uppsala University's Anthropology Department Seminar.