Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela on the Importance of the TRC for the Victims
Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is a psychologist and
author from South Africa. In 1996, South African President Nelson
Mandela appointed Gobodo-Madikizela to the Human Rights Violations
Committee of the TRC, on which she served until the Commission
completed its inquiry in 1998. In this video clip from a Facing History
and Ourselves Summer Institute, Gobodo-Madikizela talks about how
important it was for victims of apartheid oppression and violence to
have validation and affirmation that their stories are true; that
crimes were perpetrated against themselves and their loved ones, and
that the truth was exposed publicly.
Transcript:
"Victims need that sense of affirmation, they
want to be affirmed, because all of this confusing experience when you
think about what happened to you - it's confusing, it's so complicated,
but you want somebody to say, ‘yes, you are right to feel so confused,
you are right to feel so unclear about what happened to you because it
is a confusing experience, it is not a natural experience.' And so
victims need that affirmation and this is what the Truth Commission was
tapping on.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave victims that space to feel the sense of being validated, that ‘yes, you are right, there is somebody who caused you to feel this way and we can identify them here as the perpetrators.' And that moment of setting one's eyes on someone who actually did it gives the trauma a name. It names it, and that is part of the process of integrating your trauma. Now it can be explained. Somebody did it. They were under orders for such and such. So there is that value in this talking and narrative and witnessing of the trauma that is so healing for victims."
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave victims that space to feel the sense of being validated, that ‘yes, you are right, there is somebody who caused you to feel this way and we can identify them here as the perpetrators.' And that moment of setting one's eyes on someone who actually did it gives the trauma a name. It names it, and that is part of the process of integrating your trauma. Now it can be explained. Somebody did it. They were under orders for such and such. So there is that value in this talking and narrative and witnessing of the trauma that is so healing for victims."
Video length:
01 min 16 sec
Date filmed:
Apr 10 1997 
