Disruptive accountability? Temporal regimes and social change in decolonization struggles in Belgium

Abstract

To address the legacies of colonialism, several former colonial states have implemented a range of initiatives commonly considered to belong to the domain of transitional justice (TJ). These contexts are, however, very different from those for which TJ was initially conceptualized. As such, the implementation of elements from the TJ toolbox in these decolonization struggles raises several questions, which this article seeks to address. One of these questions relates to how diverging temporalities affect central normative objectives of TJ, such as accountability. The Belgian case is used to explore how a more pertinent approach to transitional temporalities enables a ‘thicker’ understanding of accountability that re-centres the debate around accountability's normative objectives in ways that are aligned with the objectives of decolonization struggles. I call this encompassing approach to accountability ‘disruptive accountability’ to underline the normative objective of disrupting harmful social structures and relations.