ABSTRACT

The Commission for the Restitution of Land Rights explicitly prioritizes claims where there is strong evidence of the existence of a unified and mobilized "community," and considers oral testimony admissible evidence for the process of mounting legal claims. The idea of doing justice in land restitution is thus strongly associated with narratives that invoke an emotionally charged sense of "community" as a basis for claiming rights. This chapter focuses on the intersubjective and dialogical aspects of testimonial narratives in the context of collective projects aimed at achieving restitution. It focuses on a conversation occurring in a group interview with four former residents of District Six. The oral genre of the testimonial interview is closely related to the "life story" in its orientation toward remembering past events and arranging them within a narrative so as to create a sense of moral order and meaning.