At the level of international peace-building discourses and interventions, the idea of transitional justice and its various ‘mechanisms’ are frequently regarded as ready-made ‘toolkit’ that should be applied everywhere where a transition from war to peace and/or from dictatorship to democracy is in the making. Policy-oriented literature and debates frequently stress the ‘victim-centered approach’ as a cornerstone for transitional justice. Recent ethnographic accounts of transitional justice processes have highlighted the complex nature of the search for peace and justice between international, national and local visions, realities and necessities. They question basic concepts such as ‘victim’, ‘perpetrator’, ‘peace’ and ‘transition’ that are frequently taken for granted by international and local policy-makers and interest-groups. This paper follows the critical approach to ‘localizing transitional justice’ proposed by Rosalind Shaw and others. It is based on recent ethnographic research among Somalis in (northern) Somalia and the diaspora about their conceptions of transitional justice avant la lettre. It provides preliminary insights to local people’s conceptions about peace, justice and categories such as ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ while violent conflict (in parts of Somalia) is still ongoing and transitional justice mechanisms are not yet in place. This provides a basis for future thinking about dealing with the violent past that accounts for local dynamics and considers the unintended consequences and pitfalls of the more ‘classical’ top-down and internationally sponsored transitional justice processes in Africa and beyond.
