The Importance of Story Telling in Post-Apartheid South Africa: How the truth help set the nation free by Eileen Rogan

I will start my reflection by using South Africa’s amnesty rendering action of truth telling, which has played a pivotal role in preserving peace post-apartheid. The truth is that I have yet to completely process and work through the meaning of what our cohort has experienced in South Africa. What did I do to deserve privilege? Having seen severe poverty, what can I do if anything to attack the issues of economic, social and political inequality? Was the service I performed done with genuine intentions? Or was part of my desire to help an act of self-loathing? Are the issues of our world too complex and widespread for me to make a difference? Do I now hold a responsibility to South Africa and its people? These are some of the questions our class has grappled with over the past month, but conjuring our personal answers to these questions will certainly take time.

 “Truth telling” became a critical part of the post-apartheid healing process for the nation of South Africa and its people. After the first democratic election in 1994, in which whites, coloreds and blacks were equally given the right to vote, the newly elected President Nelson Mandela faced the problem of how to deal with mass racial oppression and violation of human rights that had occurred during apartheid (Mandela himself was jailed for twenty-seven years for political activism against apartheid). Within the country there were many opinions of how the reconciliation process should look. Many people thought that South Africa needed trials similar to the Nuremburg Trials to achieve justice for the people. However, South Africa, under the guidance of Mandela, decided to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC) in which victims told their stories oppression and degradation of human rights and the oppressors came forward honestly with the crimes they had committed to receive a governmental pardon.  It is important to note that all victims took part in the TRC were no longer able to prosecute their oppressors because of the commissions goals of truth, reconciliation and amnesty, instead of justice.

During our time in Cape Town, Zenzile, a Senior Investigator with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission spoke to our class about the post apartheid healing process. He told his story from the investigative perspective of the TRC and also from the perspective of a citizen of South Africa. From the perspective of the TRC, the commission went further than any similar commission in the world and ensured that there would never be another situation in South Africa in which questions wouldn’t be asked.  He remarked “the counterpoint against amnesia of the past is the truth telling of the story”. Meaning that South Africa will keep the struggles and victories of its history alive in the present through story telling (which our cohort has experiences through art, museums and individuals like Zenzile).  However, as a citizen he acknowledged a “culture of impurity” as a result of granting criminal’s amnesty and allowing them to be free in society. He also discussed discontent the people of South Africa had with the commission because while the commission enabled truth telling it did not go further to ensure justice.

Despite debate about the effectiveness of the TRC, the notion of truth telling as a channel to instigate change has been embedded within the people of South Africa. Without doubt, every student in our cohort can list off experiences in which the South African people have gone out of their way to welcome us to their community, share their personal stories, translate their languages and ask about our goals and learning aspirations in South Africa. This is something that I can’t help notice due to our own American culture in which strangers ignore and often act with caution toward one another. So why in South Africa are the people so eager to share their struggles, triumphs and form bonds with its foreign visitors and each other?

I believe that they are telling their stories to expose the atrocities that have occurred in South Africa, but also to show how they have overcome it. Individuals sharing the truth about their personal and the nations past ensures that their struggles don’t fall silent and repeat themselves in the future. The new constitution formed in 1994, is one of the most liberal constitutions in the world and shows how South Africa has turned its oppressive past into a positive future in which every person is guaranteed equality. Our cohort heard many times how the current attitudes of the country are still catching up to the forward thinking constitution. This shows how South African society is striving towards true equality (if this utopian-like ideal is even possible in our world). Nonetheless, the constitution is a tangible document that shows oppression was a part of South Africa’s past, not future.   

Finally, I believe that South Africans want the international playing field to know that their country has changed, dispel any misconceptions and be a model for change around the world. As a foreigner, they may have been more likely to share their stories with me because they have the keen intelligence to know that I could help shape others opinions of South Africa in the United States. I formed these impressions from multiple conversations with South Africans, whom I often felt were training me for my opportunity to return to the United States and tell others about my experiences. Bradlee Naidoo, an employee at Impact Direct Ministries which offers aid to the impoverished Cape Flats, told me after a discussion “I hope you can take what you have seen here and apply it to help others whether it is at home, in South Africa or elsewhere internationally”.

One of the greatest aspects of storytelling is that a story’s ending is always left to be written in the future. The stories that our cohort have heard and experienced in South Africa are left for us to finish. It is these stories that will help us answer “What did I do to deserve privilege? Having seen severe poverty, what can I do if anything to attack the issues of economic, social and political inequality? Was the service I performed done with genuine intentions? Or was part of my desire to help an act of self-loathing? Are that issues of our world too complex and widespread to make a difference? Do I now hold a responsibility to South Africa and its people?”