Desmond Tutu. No Future Without Forgiveness. 1999.  Rider Books. London. Pp.  244.

This little book packs a powerful message, delivered powerfully. The message is that whether in individual, group or social contexts, forgiveness leading to reconciliation, is possible, even in the midst of the most horrendous cruelties and injustices. Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Chair of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, goes further and asserts that it is only through genuine forgiveness and appropriate reparation for the victim that future social calamities can be prevented. Tutu provides a moving account of how the Commission came to be established, and how it progressed, including an honest account of what it achieved and what it did not. Throughout the book, there shines one man's complete conviction, based on an unshakeable Christian faith, that it is not justice and retribution he is after, but genuine contrition for wrong-doing. He is a man possessed to pursue the truth of the crimes of Apartheid, whether perpetrated by police operatives and their mentors and masters, whether these were the politicians of the Afrikaner Nationalist party, the Dutch Reformed Church, the professions of the judiciary, or in fact, the whole white community who remained silent while benefiting from the privileges that the Apartheid system bestowed upon them. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission must be unique as a social institution anywhere in the world. Tutu has a remarkable insight into the nature of human beings, and this fighter for his people persuaded a nation that the best hope for their future lay in a process never tried by any other nation before - to set up under an Act of Parliament a non-judicial institution through which victims of Apartheid could come face-to-face with their persecutors and hear them tell the truth of what had happened to them (the victims) and their loved ones - a truth that may never have seen the light of day in a judicial court where the perpetrator would have every reason to try and hide it.

Tutu freely admits that the Com