Root and Branch: Discourses of 'Tradition' in Grassroots Transitional Justice

'Tradition' plays a central role in emerging grassroots transitional justice (TJ) processes, furnishing a familiar framework for the unfamiliar process of learning to live together again after conflict. 'Tradition,' in its guise as a canon of autochthonous praxis, presents itself as all but essential in structuring community-level processes. This article examines three TJ processes in Sub-Saharan Africa, each of which illustrates a distinct deployment of 'tradition' in grassroots TJ. In Rwanda, discourses of 'tradition' disguise the exercise of state authority in the gacaca courts. In Sierra Leone, Fambul Tok enables reconciliation processes by assembling a diversity of local consociational leaders, 'traditional' and novel. In Zimbabwe, Tree of Life eschews a focus on 'traditional' authority in favor of a flexibly 'atraditional' approach that encourages collaboration with emergent, locally legitimate leadership.