Gendered Violence: Continuities and Transformation in the Aftermath of Conflict in Africa

This thematic cluster of essays, titled “Gendered Violence: Continuities and Transformation in the Aftermath of Conflict in Africa,” focuses on the continuities between regimes of violence during organized political conflict and persisting violence against women in the postconflict era of democratic governance. The genesis for this collection evolved out of an international symposium organized by the first author of this introduction, in August 2011. The aim of the symposium was to explore African women’s experiences in the aftermath of mass violence and genocide—both in terms of their victimhood and their agency—and their positioning in the broader context of their social, cultural, and political engagement after the official ending of hostilities. In this introduction, we consider the multiple violations that women have suffered in recent conflicts and genocide on the African continent, and which they continue to suffer long after the violent conflict has ended. We explore the plurality of women’s experiences in the wake of political violence and in its aftermath—their simultaneous experiences of trauma and victimhood, their agency and empowerment, and their solidarity in standing together in their woundedness to rebuild their communities

A Less Attractive Feature of Empathy: Intergroup Empathy Bias

Empathy with others’ successes and misfortunes is a critical component of group living that promotes social cohesion. Unfortunately, empathy is a malleable phenomenon in that its elicitation is not automatic, but modulated by multiple interlocking factors. This chapter explores the specific phenomenon of intergroup empathy bias—the difference in empathy for members of social ingroups versus outgroups—which poses profound challenges for our modern human world characterized by a multitude of groups, ethnicities, and cultures. The chapter frames the discussion by contextualizing empathy as consisting of three interacting component processes, namely experience sharing, perspective taking, and empathic concern. It then goes on to examine research describing the effects of intergroup bias on each of these component processes. Next, it explores the factors, both at the level of the group and at the level of the individual, which may contribute to empathic breakdown in intergroup contexts. Finally, it considers strategies that may have potential in mitigating intergroup empathy bias. Here, we draw on our own experiences in the South African context, which is characterized by pervasive racial inequality and legacies of apartheid violence, to suggest that intergroup empathy is best stimulated in a context of reciprocal mutual engagement with the other

The African intellectuals’ project

Soon after taking the position of editor of IJARS at the beginning of 2019, I was contacted by the dean of Unisa’s College of Graduate Studies (CGS), Prof. Lindiwe Zungu, who informed me that the university’s principal and vice-chancellor, Prof. Mandla Makhanya, had decided to revive his project, the African Intellectuals’ Project (AIP). I was asked to coordinate this project, through which Makhanya sought to invite scholars, academics, and intellectuals, both on and outside of the African continent, to deliver presentations reflecting on the ills afflicting Africa and, at the same time, to offer possible solutions. In pursuing the AIP, Prof. Makhanya was carrying on a perennial tradition

Empathy’s echo: post-apartheid fellow feeling

The concept of empathy has been set to work, across a range of fields, to mark a break with the relational patterns of apartheid. Similarly, empathy has been identified, historically, as that which, within apartheid and colonial rule more generally, exceeded or escaped relations of domination. This paper approaches the discourse of empathy from a different angle, taking empathy as a concept embedded in colonial thinking. Given that so many claims to empathy have had recourse to psychoanalysis, the paper focuses on empathy in Freud’s work, specifically Dora’s case and Freud’s analysis of Michelangelo’s Moses, which are read alongside the images and installations of contemporary South African artist, Nandipha Mntambo, in particular her collection of images and installations in The Encounter. Three scenes are conjured wherein empathy confronts its impossibility, but rather than foreclose on empathy as a postapartheid condition, it is through the disclosure of the aporias of empathy that it might be brought into the realm of the ethical through a practice of reinscription and through the figure of Echo

What does it mean to be human in the aftermath of historical trauma? : re-envisioning The Sunflower and why Hannah Arendt was wrong

What does it mean to be human in the aftermath of mass trauma and violence? When victims and perpetrators of gross human rights violations live in the same country, and sometimes as neighbours, what strategies can help individuals and communities deal with trauma in a way that restores dignity to victims and enables perpetrators to be accountable for their crimes? This essay explores these questions. Examples that illustrate attempts to create sites for listening, for moral reflection and for initiating the difficult process of dialogue at community and individual levels after mass trauma and violence are discussed. It is argued that in the aftermath of historical trauma, restoring human bonds requires a new vocabulary of re-humanization. This new mode of being human calls for a “reparative humanism” that opens towards a horizon of an ethics of care for the sake of a transformed society

What does it mean to be human in the aftermath of historical trauma? : re-envisioning The Sunflower and why Hannah Arendt was wrong

What does it mean to be human in the aftermath of mass trauma and violence? When victims and perpetrators of gross human rights violations live in the same country, and sometimes as neighbours, what strategies can help individuals and communities deal with trauma in a way that restores dignity to victims and enables perpetrators to be accountable for their crimes? This essay explores these questions. Examples that illustrate attempts to create sites for listening, for moral reflection and for initiating the difficult process of dialogue at community and individual levels after mass trauma and violence are discussed. It is argued that in the aftermath of historical trauma, restoring human bonds requires a new vocabulary of re-humanization. This new mode of being human calls for a “reparative humanism” that opens towards a horizon of an ethics of care for the sake of a transformed society

Exploring the ethical principle of social responsibility and other ethical issues in the context of the mental health professional' response to xenophobic violence in Cape Town

The violence of political conflict and wars that have led to humanitarian crises, creating increased numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons across the globe, have focused attention on the psychology profession's responsibility in the broader social and political issues that affect individuals, families, and communities. The principle of social responsibility, which forms part of most international codes for professional psychology, provides a framework for this expanded role of psychologists. This article explores the meaning of the concept and practice of social responsibility using as backdrop the mental health professionals' response to the xenophobic violence that broke out nationally in South Africa in May 2008. The article explores some ethical dilemmas faced by psychologists in their work in one of the safe sites created for victims and survivors of xenophobic violence in Cape Town. It argues that compared to the psychotherapeutic framework, which is based on the individual as the unit of analysis and treatment, social responsiveness invites a much more complex relational experience that often requires psychologists to play multiple roles as part of their intervention. The article concludes with reflections about how engagement in social responsibility might create an opportunity for dialogue about the centrality of an ethics of care and compassion in professional psychology

Narrating Our Healing:Perspectives on Working Through Trauma

Many thousands of words from every imaginable perspective and in every genre have been written about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) since it began its work thirteen years ago. Among the most interesting and moving of those works was A Human Being Died That Night: A Story of Forgiveness by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist who worked for the TRC. Gobodo-Madikizela\u27s account of her meetings with convicted death squad commander Eugene de Kock (aka ‘Prime Evil’), and her struggles to reconcile knowledge of his horrifying deeds with the humanity she found in the man, personalized her calls for forgiveness and reconciliation, giving them a poignancy beyond the easy platitudes occasionally offered up by some other TRC proponents