Written 07 Apr 2008.

A Human Being Died That Night: Forgiving Apartheid’s Chief Killer
by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

southern cross by Jann Turner

Ah, but your land is beautiful by Alan Paton

The Betrayal by Gillian Slovo

My mind has been working overtime as usual chewing various things from the news, the book I am reading and life as I live it and see it. I am trying to sort out the worlds problems all by myself here at my little desk in my fairly big house (comparatively speaking) in a small village in a small country in a wide wide world.

I am reading a book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. The writer is a South African psychologist who served on the Human Rights Violations Committee in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa between 1996 and 1998. The book is an exploration of the meanings of responsibility, remorse and forgiveness. The title of the book caught my attention in the bookshop. It is A Human Being Died That Night: Forgiving Apartheid’s Chief Killer. Its the first part that really got to me. It still does. It feels like a small ball is painfully lodged inside my belly. I am actually crying now. I have to stop for a while. ....

A cup of coffee to help me along: Cafe Rebelde Zapatista from the Nueva Luz Co-operative in Chiapas, Mexico. There’s a mouthful for you and a very tasty mouthful to me. Heh. If I buy anything (I try to limit my purchases to Europe or even closer to home whenever possible) from outside Europe I try to make certain that the product is fair trade and possibly also organic in order to cause least possible harm to others and to our environment by my indulgences.

I read fairly recently another book, a novel, southern cross by Jann Turner, with a few first chapters set in 1987 and the remaining ones in 1997. It explores the crime of political murder in the apartheid era which is brought to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ten years later and is then slowly unraveled by the characters. Other books dealing with life in South Africa at the time of apartheid are Alan Paton’s famous Ah, but your land is beautiful, set in the years 1952 to 1958 and Gillian Slovo’s The Betrayal set in the later years of apartheid. These two last books I read many years ago. I do not remember much about the stories, but I do remember that they really moved me. They are all written by South Africans and I recommend them all.

Now back to what is exercising my mind today. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s book got me to thinking of the situation now and particularly about the crime that is being committed right now by all of us, but more so by the people who have money and power in our society. It is a great crime of our society that so many people are suffering in various ways because of the uneven distribution of wealth. South Africa seems to be following in the footsteps of all the other capitalist nations. There is so much poverty there and poverty leads to all kinds of crime. Which in turn leads to those in power to entrench their positions of wealth and power and to legislate to protect their positions. Here in Britain obscene wealth of some is continually brought to the attention of public at large. The latest changes in the taxation are profiting the richer and punishing the poorer. This was done by a Labour government.

How to solve the problem without undue suffering and confrontation? And believe you me, it is time to solve this. We cannot afford to have so many people suffering and feeling alienated and hurting themselves or others. We cannot afford to live in a society which seems to concentrate on crime and punishment. It is not good for our health, to anyone’s health - rich or poor.

I think we need to get away from our usual way of valuing things, step sideways and value people instead. So instead of paying for a work or job done pay for a worker’s time spent on it. Value the worker and the time and effort the worker puts in pers work. So the roadsweeper who spends time keeping our roads clean and thus helping us to avoid getting sick and overwhelmed by the filth we drop around us or the office cleaner who makes the work place clean and tidy and pleasant to work in, is paid the same hourly rate as the manager pushing papers around in the clean and tidy office trying to decide who does what job.

This is not meant to belittle what happened in apartheid South Africa or in Rwanda or in Hitler’s Germany or in Stalin’s Russia or in Cambodia. I think it is important to keep in mind that these monstrosities that took place involved human beings, both as victims and as perpetrators, and the situations that led to these happenings were created by us. It is time to wake up and organise our society so that all feel that they are a part of it. The wealth of our society belongs to us all, not just a few. We all should be able to enjoy that wealth. All in moderation, none in excess.