Theories for a Global Ethics

This chapter discusses the rights of those living in marginalized areas but who produce virtually on a daily basis intricate knowledge systems of survival and the rights of scholars coming from those marginalized places, but who can only enter the world of acknowledged knowledge in languages not their own and within discourses based on foreign and estrange-ing structures. Instead of listening to the impressive stories of well-known activists, the commission went out of its way to provide a forum for the most marginalized narratives from rural areas given in indigenous languages. During the two years of hearings conducted by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission two thousand testimonies were given in public. Since the first democratic election in 1994, South Africa is trying to become part of what is sometimes called a normal dispensation. The workshop was organized by the university after it became clear that our new democratic government wants universities to come up with fundable research.