Forgiving the Unforgivable

“This process was about giving voice and breaking the silence of victims.”

Dr. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela was a member of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC) which established a unique platform on which unexpected human moments emerged in the encounter between perpetrators of gross human rights violations and survivors/victims of the abuses that happened under the apartheid regime. Dr. Gobodo-Madikizela says that at the core of the transformative moments that unfold in these encounters is empathy, elicited by the reciprocal expression of remorse in perpetrators, and in forgiving responses by survivors.

Professor Gobodo-Madikizela is giving the Bayard and John Cobb Peace Lecture at Naropa in Boulder at 6:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center, 2130 Arapahoe Avenue on Tuesday April 21st. The lecture is called: Forgiving the Unforgivable? Trauma, Remembering and the Emergence of the Unexpected.

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