Understanding the journey to reconciliation in transitional societies: Using the metaphor of a motor vehicle road trip to understand South Africa’s path (process) to political reconciliation

This article, using the metaphor of a motor vehicle road trip, explores South Africa’s much-lauded and deftly exported transitional experiment. It explores how the journey, and process of reconciliation, was a prominent feature of the post-1994 transition. It is argued that the journey did not begin in 1994. It began way before. While the main journey began after the democratic elections, many preparations were done before that. Thus, the time period, the route chosen, those in the vehicle, those on the pavement and their role as well as issues such as places visited, the way the journey was eventually accepted, and how various people and institutions, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, assisted in the process will be examined. The article argues that nation building and reconciliation in South Africa were processes or journeys; not events. The journey had many facets, all of whic contributed to the project as a whole.