Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa

by Antjie Krog

Blurb

Country of My Skull is a 1998 nonfiction book by Antjie Krog primarily about the findings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The book is, in reality, an intersectional, interdisciplinary analysis of the Commission's potential and realized effects on post-Apartheid South Africa.
The book can be understood as having three main elements: First, it is a collection of accounts from the TRC hearings - direct testimony of the terrible human rights violations on all sides of the struggle against Apartheid. Second, it is an exploration and analysis of political and moral philosophy relevant to, inspired by, and grounded in the TRC. Third, it is biographical, in terms of the author being extremely honest, open, and self-analytical about her own position and experience relative to the TRC - racially as a white Afrikaner, professionally as a radio journalist, emotionally as someone grappling with her nation's bloody past, and personally as her experiences covering the TRC affect her intimate life.

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