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Historical Memory and a New Democracy

Abstract This essay explores the meaning and the form of historical memory in the context of the young South African democracy. Differentiating between the concepts of constructive and responsive memory and the inclusive or exclusive character each can take, it attempts to determine what kind of historical memory is necessary to forge a common political enterprise in a multi-ethnic and multi-racial environment. In this regard it refers to some sharply divisive collective memories and suggests ways in which the naturally ethnocentric consciousness of any given cultural group might be supplemented and enriched by the emergence of a national consciousness built around the idea that people bond not despite their differences but because of them. The paper touches on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as an example of responsive memory focusing on the meaning of truth both in the process of dealing with the past and as a means towards reconciliation in the future.