Abstract:
Over the past few decades, there has been a growing interest in restorative
justice in terms of the alternatives it offers to the narrow limits of the criminal
justice system. This has also been the case in the African context, where some
argue that local justice processes reflect a restorative approach to justice. In this article, we explore this assertion and argue for the adoption of the term African
restorative justice to encapsulate the ways in which local justice processes on
the continent echo certain aspects of restorative justice approaches globally, but
also have characteristics that make them uniquely African. Of interest is what
African restorative justice can offer national, state-led interventions in relation
to mass conflict.
We reference the cases of South Africa and Zimbabwe, where interviews
were held, together with observations of tradition-based practices, in order to
understand local understandings of justice. This article discusses the findings
which include the difficulties in bringing together human rights, human dignity,
customary law and the state-led justice system. It argues for the importance of
community and ‘endogenous’ knowledge in helping us overcome and move
beyond the dual thinking that is often apparent in public discourse, of either
rejecting local justice practices as being undemocratic and having nothing to
offer a new, contemporary democratic order, or accepting them idealistically
and uncritically.
