ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the objective lessons that can be gleaned from South Africa's process of dealing with its brutal past. It also focuses on the resources that inspired and befitted the process. It highlights the issues that furthered the process, including the institutions, people, methods and events that allowed the process to unfold in such a positive way, at least in the years shortly after the transition. The chapter examines the nation-building process that benefited the reconciliation process but notes that a democratic culture existed in civil society even before the transition. The role of individuals is essential to reconciliation processes. Individuals have the ability to promote or undermine reconciliation at all levels. Individuals played an important part in South Africa. Symbolism was also important to the reconciliation process. Nation building concerns the constructing or reconstructing of a national identity.
