Religious Leaders and Conflict Reconstruction in Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Reflection

Since Scott Appleby's The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation, religion-based models have increasingly become popular in the post-conflict reconstruction literature. Such models incorporate the involvement of religion and its actors, as both instruments and spiritual resources, for encouraging non-physical violent interactions in the public space. However, for their emphases on forgiveness and seeming disregard of retributive justice, the real contribution of such models to post-conflict reconstruction and economic empowerment has been called into question. In a country such as South Africa, where peacebuilding programmes were in the aftermath of political and racial conflicts encouraged on religious grounds, critiques question the efficacy of such religion-based models. They argue that such models not only romanticise the idea of non-violence but also do little to encourage economic empowerment. This study appraised such criticisms, reflecting on the relevance of religion and its actors on post-conflict reconstruction in South Africa. Drawing from Janine Natalya Clark's bottom-up thesis, it argued that religion is most valuable for post-conflict reconstruction, when its actors appropriate it for the development of grassroots projects that encourage psycho-social healings, development of anti-violent strategies and attitudinal changes towards non-violent retaliation.