The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid. Anyone who felt that he or she was a victim of its violence was invited to come forward and be heard. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from prosecution. It resulted in a country turning from its terrible past and, at long last, enemies making peace with one another. But was it that simple?
In 1982, Gillian Slovo’s mother, also a journalist, was murdered in South Africa. The perpetrators of this heinous crime sought amnesty from the TRC and Slovo was there to record the hearings. Here, Slovo discusses her difficult and intimate interaction with the criminals that killed her mother as well as her book Red Dust (2002), a fictional account of this experience.