Source: (2007) Research in African Literatures. 38(3): 60-76.
On 28 and 29 July 1997, a special committee of South Africa’s Truth and
Reconciliation Commission heard the testimonies of women who had been
abused and brutalized during the years of apartheid rule by white South
Africans. Seizing this unique opportunity to liberate their minds and voices,
long suppressed by a heartless patriarchal system, the women told their
tales within the traditional frame of oral performances. But the lack of a
truly gender-sensitive format forced their testimonies into evasive strategies
born partly of an ingrained resentment of male domination and partly
of codes of secrecy under which blacks waged a long military struggle
against the system. (Author’s abstract)
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