Ghanaians embarked on a traumatic and divisive journey into their troubled past starting 2002 when the National Reconciliation Commission began investigating the bloody secrets of dictatorial unconstitutional regimes.
The formula was simple: torturers, killers and their political leaders were to come forward and confess their crimes and that if they did so they would be granted amnesty.
For the victims, there was to be recognition of their suffering and for perpetrators of the crimes, an opportunity to apologise for their actions.
By the end of the process, the slate had to be clean and the past exorcised.