The historical framework

Memory can be a very versatile instrument in human society. It possesses the ability to perform perfunctory tasks, such as recalling a new word or a practical skill, as well as playing a more sophisticated role, such as being the buoying belt for oral lore and human history. At another level, memory can also be used as a strategy to make an impact on the behaviour of social groups. The foregoing is primarily premised on positive memory. Negative memory, by contrast, can have a totally different effect on human life than what is highlighted above. In this discussion, we explore the kaleidoscopic journey that South Africa has travelled in rebuilding itself after the ravages of war, using the instrument of memory in its various forms.

Paging the past, at whatever distance, is a common and age-old human practice. Humans make reference to the past for myriad reasons, principal amongst which is recollection for the purposes of addressing a current context, for sheer pleasure. Functional recollection, in many societies in Africa, for instance, has been employed to entertain, order society or influence human behaviour. This was especially evident in the recounting of past acts of valour, defeat or calamity. The most common tool of memory for social engagement in African society is the telling of the folktale, which has the double function of employing memory in the teller and cultivating the same in the listener, who is a potential teller and enactor of the lessons taught in the tales. Situating memory in the tale is no small matter, as recollecting and retelling the past provide Africa's greatest social map for forging identity, and sustaining communities and cultures. Humans remember so as to fashion their walk in the present, into the future. Hence, remembering the great journey that South Africa has traversed from the recent, the distant and far past to the present, with a view to seeing how society handles itself after calamities, is the primary aim of this discussion.

Our point of departure is that, in 1994, South Africa emerged from a drawn-out war. Facing up to the truth of naming apartheid a war is not an exaggerated position of reference, but the first essential step toward healing as a fitting approach to addressing postwar trauma can thus be confidently employed.