Bearing Witness: Women and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South AfricaPeople who witness acts of terror and violence are often called after the event to bear witness to what they saw. In cases where this violence is inflicted by the state upon its own people, the process of bearing witness is both politically complex and traumatic for the individual involved. Independent trials and commissions have become important mechanisms through which the truth of past violence is sought in democratising states, but to date there has been little close attention to the processes and complexity of the work of such institutions.Fiona Ross's fascinating study of the process of bearing witness is the first book to examine the gendered dimensions of this topic from an anthropological and ethnographic viewpoint. Taking as a key example the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, Ross explores women's relationships to testimony, particularly the extent to which women avoid talking about or are silent about certain forms of violence and suffering. Offering a wealth of first-hand examples, Ross approaches a more subtle understanding of the achievements and the limitations of testimony as a measure of suffering and recovery generally. Is it, she asks, the panacea it is usually seen as? Or do conventional discourses on human rights, suffering and reconciliation oversimplify an altogether more complex and problematic process? |
From inside the book
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Page 111
... held in a communal cell with a number of other women from the Boland . She says that she was held for four months , although the law provided only for detention of 14 days . She was released without being charged . Her mother had been ...
... held in a communal cell with a number of other women from the Boland . She says that she was held for four months , although the law provided only for detention of 14 days . She was released without being charged . Her mother had been ...
Page 138
... held were covered in lice . The brown bread that was her dinner was stale . She refused to eat . She collapsed . A doctor said she was not well enough to be held in prison . Instead of being taken to hospital , she was transferred to ...
... held were covered in lice . The brown bread that was her dinner was stale . She refused to eat . She collapsed . A doctor said she was not well enough to be held in prison . Instead of being taken to hospital , she was transferred to ...
Page 139
... held in Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town . She does not know why she was detained : she was neither questioned nor charged . She was held in a communal cell with women who had been detained from all over the Western Cape and spent five ...
... held in Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town . She does not know why she was detained : she was neither questioned nor charged . She was held in a communal cell with women who had been detained from all over the Western Cape and spent five ...
Contents
Testimonial Practices | 27 |
The Self in Extremity | 51 |
Narrative Threads | 77 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Bearing Witness: Women and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Fiona C. Ross No preview available - 2002 |
Bearing Witness: Women and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South ... Fiona C. Ross No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
African Afrikaans Alex Boraine amnesty apartheid arrested asked Boland boycott Cape Town Casspir cell cent Chapter child Commission's comrades context cultural data No data death deponents described detained detention Durban effects Emergency exile forms gender Gobodo-Madikizela gross violations harm healing held HRVC human rights violations identified Internal Security Act interrogation involved Johannesburg Khutwane's testimony killed Mirriam Moleleki mobilisation mother narrative Neliswa Noluntu Nothemba Nowi Nyameka Goniwe organisations pain policemen political activists political activities prison protest public hearings rape recognised Reconciliation Commission Refused to divulge resistance SAIRR sexual violation silence social solitary confinement South Africa statements story struggle suffering tell told the Commission torture township toyi-toyi Truth and Reconciliation Truth Commission Veena Das victims violations of human violence Volume Five Volume Four Wendy Orr Western Cape woman women testified Women's Hearing Worcester Xhosa Xoliswa youth Yvonne Khutwane Zwelethemba