Abstract

CAGUENAS ROZO, Diego. Injured Souls, Face, Forgiveness and Miracles. Reflections Concerning Bojayá, Chocó. Estud. Polit. [online]. 2021, n.61, pp.48-71.  Epub Dec 10, 2021. ISSN 0121-5167.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.espo.n61a03.

This article inquires for the possibility of forgiving the mala muerte (Bad death) when considering the damage caused to the people of the Municipality of Bojayá, Department of Chocó, amidst Colombian internal conflict. It addresses the possibility of forgiving the daño al alma (injure to the soul) that the people of Bojayá have identified as the gravest effect of political violence on their lives. It approaches this question by resorting to the concepts of the face (Levinas) and miracles (Arendt) with the purpose of positing that forgiveness does justice in a different way, because it follows a different logic from that of the Nation State’s judicial and penal apparatus. This means that there is no law of forgiveness, since it can be neither demanded nor expected. It concludes that both, face and miracles, evince that forgiveness entails a new unpredictable beginning, in which a dramatic change takes place regarding the distribution of the sensible, that allows for the political recognition of the souls of the departed ones and the dignified life of Afro Colombian communities.

Keywords : Post-Conflict; Peace; Forgiveness; Afro-Descendants; Colombia.

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