Restorative Justice in Africa. From trans-dimensional knowledge to a culture of harmony

This book was inspired by the need of post-conflict societies to manage knowledge resources in such a way that it creates lasting restoration of durable peaceful relationships among people. It aims to demonstrate the challenges of the management of knowledge for restorative justice in Africa and the principles and practices by which these challenges can be met. To achieve this aim they applied what they call the 'Trans-dimensional Knowledge Management Model (TDKM-M)' to specific cases of restorative justice in South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Liberia. After an analysis of the cases studies, the author successfully demonstrated the challenges of the management of knowledge for restorative justice in Africa and the principles and practices by which these challenges can be met. The authors revealed common challenges to restorative justice such as establishing the 'truth'; the institutionalisation of recommendations by truth and reconciliation bodies; the handling of non-cooperative offenders; and replacing of 'good' values' with 'bad' values as major challenges to restorative justice. To meet these challenges, they propose certain principles of trans-dimensional restorative justice: the establishment of a 'trans-dimensional knowledge foundation' (not some version of 'the truth'); leadership in the implementation of strategies and plans; restoration or establishment of good relations among all people (not only the ruling elites); the identification of tacit and unseen factors that will determine successful restoration of these relationships; and changing these tacit and unseen factors.