As South Africa moves along the difficult road toward national reconciliation it continues a process, begun by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), to confront the personal and societal trauma visited upon the country by its Apartheid past. To explore efforts to advance national reconciliation in South Africa, the Institute's Grant Program sponsored a special roundtable discussion on September 21, 2004 with award winning author and Institute grantee Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela.

Institute grantee Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela addresses the audience.

An associate professor of psychology at the University of Cape Town and a former member of the Human Rights Violations Committee of South Africa's TRC, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela discussed the TRC's central themes of public acknowledgement, truth-telling, and accountability and elaborated on how the TRC approach enabled an empathic, human connection between victims and perpetrators. She also explored how, in public spaces, the interpersonal, empathic dynamic between victim and perpetrator can be extended to include broader audiences and communities. Moderated by Steven Riskin, a program officer in the Institute's Grant Program, the panel discussion was followed by questions from the floor.

Speakers

• Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
  Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Cape Town; Former Member, Human Rights Violations Committee, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Author, A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness; and U.S. Institute of Peace Grantee
• Steve Riskin, Grant Program, U.S. Institute of Peace, Moderator