Complicity and Reconciliation

Teresa Barnes, UIUC historian of southern Africa jointly appointed in history and gender and women's studies, marked the 20th anniversary of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission by reviewing its documentation, amnesty and reparations work and its limits. She developed a concept of complicity as "foldedness" and applied it to the 1993 assassination of ANC and SACP leader Chris Hani and the then-imminent parole of his killers, drawing parallels to U.S. mass incarceration. The talk included an archival clip of Hani speaking, and audience Q&A. Spring 2016 series "Breaking Down Racism: Fighting Racial Injustice in the U.S."