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Press Release for a Human Being Died That Night Published By Press Release A Human Being Died That Night by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela • About the Book • About the Author • Praise for A Human Being Died That Night • Some Themes Explored in A Human Being Died That Night • A Timeline of Apartheid and Reconciliation in South Africa "A book that tugs at our humanity, compassion, and integrity." — Archbishop Desmond Tutu About the Book Once in a great while we meet someone whose courage inspires, even provokes us. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is one of those rare few. Her powerful book, A Human Being Died That Night, about her work on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, raises disturbing, profound questions about the nature of evil and its consequences that will deepen our understanding of remorse and forgiveness. As the only psychologist on the TRC's Human Rights Violations Committee in the Western Cape, Pumla made the extraordinary decision to interview Eugene de Kock — a man known as "Prime Evil" for his relentless pursuit and extermination of anti-apartheid activists. Pumla met de Kock in Pretoria's maximum-security prison, where he has been serving a 212- year sentence for crimes against humanity. It was here that she began a journey that would lead her to examine the far reaches of human cruelty and cause her to redefine the value of remorse and the limits of forgiveness. Pumla tells the gripping story of how one of the most depraved state-sanctioned killers of the twentieth century came to be, and the ways in which he rationalized his actions. She also explains how she and other black South Africans from the townships struggle with the sometimes contradictory impulses to hold such killers accountable and to forgive them. In the book, we listen in on Pumla's conversations with de Kock and witness his extraordinary awakening of conscience. This transformation raises one of the most www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com 1 of 7 Copyright (c) 2003 Houghton Mifflin Company, All Rights Reserved complicated questions of our time: What does it mean when we discover that someone so evil is also as frighteningly human as we are? Early response to the book has been overwhelming. Human rights groups around the country have been clamoring to get Pumla to share her story with their members. This intense interest has resulted in a twelve-city book tour in January and February 2003, with visits to Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Chicago, Austin, Cleveland, Memphis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. In addition to endorsements by such figures as Archbishop Desmond Tutu (a fellow member of the TRC), J. M. Coetzee, and Adam Hochschild, Kirkus Reviews notes Pumla's purpose "in this gracefully written account is less to condemn than to document, understand, and ultimately forgive; without a hint of sanctimony, she argues that a victim who puts revenge aside can gain a more satisfying measure of power by becoming 'the gatekeeper to what the outcast desires — readmission into the human community.'" Pumla is a clinical psychologist and has held teaching positions at the Kennedy School of Government, Brandeis University, Stanford University, and Wellesley College. She is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Cape Town. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's story is especially timely, since there have been renewed calls for the pardon of de Kock following presidential pardons granted earlier this year to thirty- three prisoners who fought against the apartheid regime. Wherever she appears, Pumla is asked to draw parallels between the South African experience of living under threat of violence and the current climate of fear in the United States. About the Author Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela was born in Langa Township, in Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated from Fort Hare University, which Nelson Mandela and many of today's leaders in South Africa's government also attended, under apartheid's laws of separate education for blacks and whites. She pursued graduate studies at Rhodes University, an apartheid-era whites-only university where blacks had to obtain approval from the minister of education to study for degrees not offered by universities designated for blacks. Pumla qualified as a clinical psychologist and earned a doctoral degree from the University of Cape Town. Pumla has been the recipient of many awards from leading institutions, including Harvard University, the University of Southern California, UCLA, and the University of Michigan. She was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by Holy Cross College in 2002. Pumla has taught for many years in the psychology department of the University of Transkei. She served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shortly before coming to the United States, in 1998, to take up a peace fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Research at Harvard. Between 1999 and 2001, she also taught at Brandeis, Wellesley, and Tufts, and offered workshops for college and high school teachers in summer institutes run by Facing History and Ourselves. Gobodo-Madikizela has also lectured extensively on issues of forgiveness, apology, and remorse. Gobodo-Madikizela is currently an associate professor of psychology at the University of www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com 2 of 7 Copyright (c) 2003 Houghton Mifflin Company, All Rights Reserved Cape Town and an adjunct professor at the Unilever Ethics Centre of the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. She also serves as a faculty affiliate in the Coexistence Program at the Brandeis Ethics Center. Gobodo-Madikizela lives in Cape Town with her son. Praise for A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness "Through her encounters with Eugene de Kock, notorious as 'Prime Evil' when he headed up the apartheid government's killing farm, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela wrestles with the agonizing perplexities of whether perpetrators of gruesome human rights violations and atrocities can or should be forgiven. This is not a cold or detached discussion, but a book that tugs at our humanity, compassion, and integrity." — Archbishop Desmond Tutu "Gobodo-Madikizela is judicious in her characterizations of the now imprisoned policeman Eugene de Kock, 'the man whom many in [South Africa] considered the most brutal of apartheid's covert police operatives' — and who has long and deservedly borne the nickname 'Prime Evil' . Gobodo-Madikizela's purpose in this gracefully written account is less to condemn than to document, understand, and ultimately forgive; without a hint of sanctimony, she argues that a victim who puts revenge aside can gain a more satisfying measure of power by becoming 'the gatekeeper to what the outcast desires — readmission into the human community.' "There's much forgiving to be done in this world, and this primer in compassion makes a fine start." — Kirkus Reviews "There is no more unsettling mystery than what allows an apparently normal human being to take part in institutionalized mass murder. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela has every reason to loathe renowned apartheid death squad chief Eugene de Kock. But in this searching look at him, she gives evidence of an even greater human mystery: the capacity for understanding and compassion." — Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost "A Human Being Died That Night is a disturbing voyage into the heart of a professional killer and a coolly intelligent analysis of how the conscience gets to be numbed; but also an exploration of the workings of forgiveness, a persuasive argument for the South African formula for reconciliation via the road of truth, and, not least, a testament to the author's powers of sympathy." — J. M. Coetzee, author of Disgrace Some Themes Explored in A Human Being Died That Night THE VALUE OF FORGIVENESS (P. 117) "Although forgiveness is often regarded as an expression of weakness, the decision to forgive can paradoxically elevate a victim to a position of strength as the one who holds the key to the perpetrator's wish. For just at the moment when the perpetrator begins to show remorse, to seek some way to ask forgiveness, the victim becomes the gatekeeper to what the outcast desires — readmission into the human community. And the victim retains that privileged status as long as he or she stays the moral course, refusing to sink to the level of www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com 3 of 7 Copyright (c) 2003 Houghton Mifflin Company, All Rights Reserved the evil that was done to her or to him. In this sense, then, forgiveness is a kind of revenge, but revenge enacted at a rarefied level. Forgiving may appear to condone the offense, thus further disempowering the victim. But forgiveness does not overlook the deed: it rises above it." THE EVOLUTION OF PERSONAL EVIL (P. 55) "In my research and professional practice, I have time and again come across two fundamental positions — partly philosophical, partly empirical — regarding the nature and evolution of violence and personal evil. The first view holds that certain individuals are predisposed toward becoming evil as a result of early childhood experiences of violence that made them suffer shame and humiliation, leaving them with unresolved anger . "The second view on the issue maintains that evildoing is not the result of a predisposition, since most who have suffered unspeakable trauma do not turn out to be monsters. On this again partly philosophical, partly empirical view, people have free choice. The sovereignty of the heart is essentially inviolable . "My own position is that the issue is more complex than either of these two positions. Those who have been traumatized are vulnerable to falling into a mode of psychological repetition of aggression they suffered. Whether individuals turn out this way or that depends on a complicated set of factors, one being whether they are 'violently coached,' another whether they are exposed to positive experiences that can help mend the humiliation they suffered and restore their sense of identity." JUDGING PERPETRATORS OF VIOLENCE (P.
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