Skip to content
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL DOMESTIC ORDERS $35+
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL US ORDERS $35+
A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Woman Confronts the Legacy of Apartheid - Paperback | Diverse Reads

A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Woman Confronts the Legacy of Apartheid

Availability:
in stock, ready to be shipped
$15.99 - $15.99
$15.99
$16.99
$16.99 - $16.99
$16.99
An acutely nuanced and original study of a state-sanctioned mass murderer, A Human Being Died That Night explores what it means to be human—both the good and the evil within us.

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist who grew up in a black South African township, reflects on her interviews with Eugene de Kock, the commanding officer of state-sanctioned death squads under apartheid.

Gobodo-Madikizela met with de Kock in Pretoria's maximum-security prison, where he was serving a 212-year sentence for crimes against humanity. In profoundly arresting scenes, Gobodo-Madikizela conveys her struggle with contradictory internal impulses to hold him accountable and to forgive.

Ultimately, as she allows us to witness de Kock's extraordinary awakening of conscience, she illuminates the ways in which the encounter compelled her to redefine the value of remorse and the limits of forgiveness.

ISBN-13: 9780618446599

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Publication Date: 04-19-2004

Pages: 208

Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.56(d)

Age Range: 14 - 18 Years

PUMLA GOBODO-MADIKIZELA served on the Human Rights Violations Committee of South Africa’s great national experiment in healing, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She lectures internationally on issues of reconciliation.

Table of Contents

1. Scenes from Apartheid 1
2. An Encounter with "Prime Evil" 13
3. The Trigger Hand 37
4. The Evolution of Evil 48
5. The Language of Trauma 79
6. Apartheid of the Mind 104
7. "I Have No Hatred in My Heart" 117
Epilogue 134
Appendix A Short History of Apartheid 143
Notes 149
Acknowledgments 177
Index 183