Parables Of Mass Atrocity: A Comparative Analysis Of The Nigerian And Liberian

Abstract

In the aftermath of conflict, the demand for societies to acknowledge the existence and impact of political violence has instigated creative policy developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) operate as mediated sites of historical contestation, offering states an opportunity to ‘come to terms’ with their own pasts. Despite the extensive body of scholarship assessing the TRC’s potential in promoting developmental goals, minimal academic attention has been given to the Report the Commissioners are mandated to produce. This study adopts a critical approach in comparatively examining key sections of the Nigerian and Liberian Commission Reports by using the ‘judgment’ substructure, as part of the ‘Appraisal System’. This thesis argues that the Reports, in summarising the findings of the TRC’s investigations, do not seek to recount objective ‘facts’; rather, project a specific image of the past, framed by the Commissioners’ assessment of how state power should be judged.