The Negotiated Apology: “Double Ventriloquism” in Addressing Historical Wrongs

Abstract

In this article, I analyze two recent diplomatic agreements between a colonizing state and a post-colonial state that address grave historical wrongdoings: the 2021 Germany–Namibia “Joint Declaration” regarding the colonial past and the 2015 Japan–South Korea “Joint Press Occasion” regarding Imperial Japan's use of so-called comfort women. These agreements point to an emerging trend of states openly negotiating, coordinating, offering, and accepting apologies. In analyzing these agreements, I re-pose Gayatri Spivak's classic question: Can the subaltern speak? Where Spivak demonstrates that the colonized subject is spoken for by both the colonizer and indigenous elites (and Western intellectuals), I demonstrate a similar process within these agreements. Specifically, a “double ventriloquism” occurs whereby both the (former) colonizing state and the post-colonial government collude to speak for the colonized in respect to offering a narrative of the wrongdoing, determining remedial measures, and agreeing that the issue is “closed.” Such collusion frames the state as the sole interlocutor in the transitional justice process and is an exercise in marginalizing subaltern voices in addressing the past. Nevertheless, where Spivak is pessimistic about the prospects of the subaltern speaking, I demonstrate that apologies inadvertently afford the colonized an opportunity to publicly disrupt official narratives and restate demands for justice.