South Africa

I think I have related my passion for ANYTHING related to Africa....sub-sahara. Who I am today is a result of many many relationships from many places. The 3 years I spent in Africa seemed to have influenced me the most. Don't get me to try and explain it, I can't. I could try, but it would be grossly inadequate. Because of my love for ANYTHING African, I read books about that wonderful continent. Even though I have never visited there, I have always been fascinated by South Africa.
Some would call it an obsession. It may not be a melting pot to the degree that America is, but it for sure has been the intersection for a LOT of different people and cultures. I am jealous of GKB because he has lived there.

I just finished reading an account of the hearings that took place for the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission"....who's purpose was to get South Africa on the road to healing and to come to terms with her often horrendous past. It is not a book for the faint of heart, in that these hearing were for those who wanted to come and confess crimes committed during the years of apartheid....a system so brutal that it has few parallels in modern history. The apartheid regime had kept the majority....black, Indian, and mixed race......separate and unequal. When they protested, they were often tortured. Death frequently so gruesome as to defy even the most active imagination. And for a variety of reasons, those who suffered at the hands of the apartheid state usually suffered in silence. The decree concerning the Truth and Reconciliation Commission read as follows: "In order to advance such reconciliation and reconstruction, amnesty shall be granted in respect of acts, omissions, and offences associated with political objectives and committed in the course of the conflicts of the past". In other words, if you stepped up to the plate and confessed your crimes, you would be given amnesty from those offences.
You can just imagine the uproar this caused on ALL sides. Enough background. I want to quote a section of the book, and trust you to make application as you see fit. For those interested the title of the book is: "Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa" by Antjie Krog.

"Venter says this about his actions: 'Then I was not sorry because I thought it was right. Now I know that it was wrong and I regret my deeds.' This sounds ordinary, but according to psychiatrists, Venter has made a crucial leap with this statement-
allowing for a space where change is possible: then it was right; now it is wrong. What makes this a psychological breakthrough is that it is almost impossible to acknowledge that the central truth around which your life has been built is a lie. At the risk of the disintegration of your self-image, you would rather keep on denying any wrongdoing."