Language Rules: Witnessing about Trauma in South Africa
...[The young girls 'playing' murder] provides an illuminating metaphor for the way in which trauma is passed on intergenerationally 'in ways subtle and not so subtle' through silences, fear, and through the psychological scars and pain that are often left unacknowledged. The questions that remain for us when we witness a scene such as this one are: Did they witness it? If they only heard about it without witnessing it, how could they so accurately reenact it?...
South African psychologist. GobodoMadikizela was educated at Fort Hare University, Rhodes University, and the University of Cape Town, where she earned her Ph.D. After three years as a research fellow at Harvard University, she returned to South Africa and joined the faculty at the University of Cape Town. Best known for her work on South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Committee, she is also a founder of Women Waging Peace, an international organization dedicated to nonviolent resolution of conflict. Gobodo-Madikizela is the author of A Human Being Died That Night: A Story of Forgiveness (2003), an award-winning account of what her work has taught her about the nature of forgiveness. See also uct.ac.za/depts/psychology/ staff/gobodo.html. 