African countries have experimented with and implemented transitional justice measures for several decades. This database provides case studies of transitional justice processes that have occurred across the continent. The case studies discuss truth commissions, justice and accountability measures, reparations programmes, institutional reforms and other elements of transitional justice, such as community-based and traditional justice mechanisms, as well as cross-cutting issues, such as gender and the role of international actors.
The 2019 African Union Transitional Justice Policy defines transitional justice as “the various (formal and traditional or non-formal) policy measures and institutional mechanisms that societies, through an inclusive consultative process, adopt in order to overcome past violations, divisions and inequalities and to create conditions for both security and democratic and socio-economic transformation.” This database, which is updated on an ongoing basis, reflects the diversity and contextuality of transitional justice processes that have been undertaken in Africa.
Algeria
During Alegria’s war of independence against France (1954–1962), a number of revolutionary groups emerged, with the most prominent being the National Liberation Front (Front de Liberation Nationale, or FLN). As part of the agreement ending colonial occupation, the FLN banned political opposition, making Algeria a one-party state for 27 years ...
Burundi
Since its independence from Belgium in 1962, Burundi has struggled with ongoing interethnic conflicts and political instability. On 20 January 1959, King Mwami Mwambutsa IV of Burundi requested the country’s independence from Belgium and the dissolution of the Ruanda-Urundi union. The monarchy followed a Tutsi-aristocratic hierarchy of succession. Under the Belgian administration, it controlled the ...
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR) gained its independence from France in August 1960. Since then, the country has experienced many years of, arguably, Africa’s most complex, enduring and, perhaps, devastating conflict. The years of instability in the country have been characterised by coups, civil wars and interference by international actors ...
Chad
A former French colony, Chad gained independence in August 1960. François Tombalbaye, leader of the Progressive Party (Parti Progressiste Tchadien, or PPT), became the first elected president of Chad. Shortly after, Tombalbaye dissolved all political parties, except the PPT, and by 1963 Chad was a one-party state. The PPT leadership, like the Chadian army, were ...
Côte d’Ivoire
For a long time after its independence from France in August 1960, the West African country of Côte d’Ivoire enjoyed relative political and economic stability. Félix Houphouët-Boigny became the country’s first prime minister and, when his party won all the parliamentary seats, he became president. Houphouët-Boigny would go on to win the presidential election for a record ...
Democratic Republic of the Congo
A former Belgian colony, the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained its independence on 30 June 1960. Following its independence, the country was first named the Republic of the Congo-Léopoldville, differentiating it from the neighbouring territory of the Republic of the Congo-Brazzaville. With the passing of the Luluabourg Constitution on 1 August 1964, the country ...
Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s socio-political and economic crises are rooted in patronage and historically antagonistic ethnic, religious, and political relations. In 1895, Italy invaded Ethiopia, ensuing the first Italo-Ethiopian War. On 1 March 1896, Ethiopia overcame the invasion and won the war at the Battle of Adowa.[1] On 23 October 1896, the two warring parties signed the Treaty ...
Gambia
In February 1965, The Gambia gained independence from colonial Britain, becoming a republic in April 1970. Dawda Jawara, head of the People’s Progressive Party, was the first prime minister and first elected president of independent Gambia. In July 1981, the government prevented a coup with the help of Senegalese forces. In 1982, Jawara and Senegalese ...
Ghana
On 6 March 1957, Ghana gained independence from Britain, becoming the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve independence from a European colonial power. Spearheading the African decolonial movement and Ghana’s colonial liberation, Francis Kwame Nkrumah, leader of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), served as the prime minister of independent Ghana from 1957 until 1960 ...
Kenya
After Kenya’s independence from Britain in 1963, Jomo Kenyatta became the first prime minister and later president of the country from 1963 until his death in 1978. Kenyatta’s administration was dominated by Kikuyus, his own ethnic group, who also dominated the military and public administration ...
Liberia
Liberia’s history as the first African state to proclaim independence in 1847 makes it one of the most unique countries on the continent. The abolition of the slave trade in the 19th century and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 motivated many people of African descent in the United States, including freed ...
Libya
On 21 November 1949, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 289 V, calling for the unification and independence of Libya by 1 January 1952. The resolution comprised of a transitional period involving the United Nations Commissioner and the Council of Ten, including one representative from each province, one representative for Libyan minorities, and one ...
Mauritius
The island nation of Mauritius has a history of colonialism and slavery, the tendrils of which are still present in modern Mauritian society. The uninhabited island was first claimed and unsuccessfully colonized by the Dutch between 1598 and 1710. The Dutch withdrew and France took control, until Mauritius was ceded to Britain under the Treaty ...
Morocco
Morocco is a racially and linguistically diverse country with a history of political upheaval rooted in early colonial occupation. Arabs and Imazighen (Berber) make up the largest percentage of the population, while other groups include descendants of Spanish refugees who fled the Reconquista and of Sub-Saharan African slaves. The country’s status as a French protectorate ...
Mozambique
Following centuries of occupation and colonisation by the Portuguese, Mozambique gained its independence in 1975. It became the People’s Republic of Mozambique after a decade of armed struggle led by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, or FRELIMO) rebel group, commanded by Eduardo Mondlane. Upon independence, FRELIMO set up ...
Namibia
The Republic of Namibia gained its independence on 21 March 1990 after decades of colonial rule by Germany and later occupation by South Africa’s apartheid government. Before independence, Namibia saw grave violations of human rights, including the Nama and Herero genocide at the hands of German colonialists, the forced disappearances of thousands by South African ...
Nigeria
On 1 October 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain, with Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as the prime minister and the British monarch, Elizabeth II, as the constitutional head of state. On 1 October 1963, Nigeria became a republic, with Nnamdi Azikiwe as the first independent president. Since its independence, the country has struggled with ...
Rwanda
The antagonism between Hutu and Tutsi that led to the 1994 genocide has its roots in the colonial period. From seizing power in 1897, the German colonizers failed to acknowledge the particular meanings given to the categories of Hutu and Tutsi in precolonial society. In general, the term ‘Hutu’ was used to describe the followers ...
Seychelles
A former French and British colony, Seychellois society has been shaped by a history of slave labour and trade, resource exploitation, and racialised socioeconomic inequality. In 1756, the French administration occupied Seychelles. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, France was forced to give Seychelles to Britain as a condition of the Treaty of Paris ...
Sierra Leone
In March 1991, a growing rebel force in neighboring Liberia known as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) invaded Sierra Leone, commencing one of the most violent civil wars in modern history. With the support of Liberian President Charles Taylor, RUF Commander Foday Sankoh recruited Sierra Leonean youths struggling with unemployment and lack of access to ...
Somalia
In the context of competition over scarce resources, ethnic tensions and armed conflict, Somalia has been consumed by violence and gross human rights violations for the last five decades. On 1 July 1960, following a merger between the British Somaliland protectorate and the Italian Trust Territory of Somalia, Somalia was created in the Horn of ...
South Africa
South Africa’s history has long been marred by racism and discrimination. In 1652, the Dutch East India Company established a settlement in the Cape. Once there, the settlers brutalized and dispossessed the indigenous San and Khoikhoi populations, forcing them into indentured servitude. Control over the Cape passed to the British in 1806. European domination was ...
South Sudan
The Republic of South Sudan declared independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011. Prior to its independence, South Sudan fought two wars against the Khartoum government in Sudan from 1955 to 1972 and from 1983 to 2005, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1.5 million and the displacement of over four ...
Togo
A former French and British colony, Seychellois society has been shaped by a history of slave labour and trade, resource exploitation, and racialised socioeconomic inequality. In 1756, the French administration occupied Seychelles. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, France was forced to give Seychelles to Britain as a condition of the Treaty of Paris ...
Tunisia
Political instability, revolutions and repression characterised Tunisia’s fight for independence from Britain until 1956. Tunisia inherited a culture of impunity under its first Prime Minister and later first President Habib Bourguiba, whose main rival and pan-Arabist nationalist movement leader Ben Youssef was forced into exile and later assassinated in Germany. Bourguiba’s administration launched a campaign of ...
Uganda
Since achieving its independence from Britain on 9 October 1962, Uganda has had a tempestuous political history marked by civil wars, dictatorship, electoral authoritarianism, ethnic tension and military incursion. Arguably, it was the British colonial administration that provided fertile ground for political instability in Uganda through its divide and rule policy, a weak state apparatus ...
