South African author, pastor and activist, Mpho Tuti van Furth argues that while we think of reparations in relation to the colonial powers and the colonised as both a remunerative act and a punitive one, reparations rightly engaged should be part of a spiritual process of forgiveness and reconciliation. Reparations would be an element in a process of atonement and restorative justice and that sees the need for acknowledgement of the damage done to the enslaved and colonised; healing and restoration of the lost humanity of the perpetrators; and repair of the violated relationships between the human and ecological victims and the human perpetrators.
