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The Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution is proud to present Dr. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's paper "Empathy and Forgiveness for Apartheid's Most Condemned Man: Confronting the Human Side of Evil." Her presentation as the 2001 Lynch Lecturer on this topic demonstrated the power of Dr. Gobodo-Madikizela's perspective and the importance of this topic.
Gobodo-Madikizela's lecture and this paper focus on one of the greatest challenges to peacebuilding, the question of empathy and forgiveness-that is, reconciliation. The South Afiican Truth and Reconciliation Commission is one of the models for questioning how reconciliation takes place, and Dr. Gobodo- Madikizela's experience with the commission informs her reflections.
In this paper, Gobodo-Madikizela focuses on the very micro process of reconciliation and the issue of apology and forgiveness. She asks, "How can we understand forgiveness in the context of tragedy?" She argues that forgiveness derives from the "sheer humanness" of an encounter between victim and perpetrator of evil and the ensuing empathy and understanding.
She provides a detailed, nuanced account of her encounters with one particularly notorious individual, Eugene de Kock, one of the apartheid government's chief assassins, and her personal struggle with empathy. She seeks to understand how he reached his decision to apologize and how the act of apologizing transformed him. Her meetings with de Kock led her to question the nature of evil, and how empathy can distort the boundary between interviewer and subject, and how the human touch alters relationships.
The Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution will continue its examination and thinking regarding these critical processes of reconciliation, and we welcome your thoughts.