Today some years after the first democratic elections in South Africa as wellas the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission TRC it isclear that ... » 

Today some years after the first democratic elections in South Africa as wellas the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission TRC it isclear that reconciliation is still needed on all terrains of South Africansociety. More and more people are becoming aware of unchanneled emotions suchas guilt fury revenge and grief which are still alive in South Africa andwhich come to fore in different ways. It seems as if reconciliation is aprocess that will in fact take years if not generations. The task of the TRChas been completed but the task of reconciliation on all levels of SouthAfrican society and the debate surrounding it are far from complete. Verylittle research has been conducted to understand both the process and the kindsof reconciliation rituals that are needed. And this is exactly the aim of theresearch described in this book. The research described here aims at making acontribution towards the process of reconciliation in South Africa byspecifically looking at one small but important element in that process namelyritual. To this end several ritual probes were conducted including anethnographic probe describing research by means of participatory observation inlocal South African communities as well as a culturalanthropologicalbiblical historical and descriptive probe. From these probes ritual qualitieswere distilled which can be used for the liturgical enculturation of ritualsof reconciliation in South Africa. «