So it is difficult to talk of timing. Your book-length work on the archive, from 1995, translated as Archive fever , is the subject of your seminar appearance in Johannesburg at Wits University. In it you discuss the operations of cultural memory in documented, archival form in relation to a culture's idea of death and loss. The relationship between the archive, memory and death has clear resonances in the context of the South African TRC's attempt to recover, or uncover, the experience of apartheid. As you can imagine, everyone in the world has been watching this process as exemplary and unique.
People watch for examples to follow.
For this reason it has been a very moving and instructive experience. On the one hand, the fact that it exists is a major achievement. The idea of the institution is unheard of. On the other hand, it is problematic and controversial. The Nats suspect the ANC, who in turn don't want Archbishop Tutu to Christianize the process too much.