8 /10 1 Votes8
4/5 Goodreads Originally published 2003 | 4/5 The Telegraph ISBN 978-0618211890 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Award Sunday Times Literary Awards Similar Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A human being died that night a south african story
A Human Being Died That Night is a 2003 book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela.
Contents
- A human being died that night a south african story
- Pumla gobodo madikizela on forgiveness
- Stage adaptation
- References
The book is Gobodo-Madikizela's account of her interviews with state-sanctioned mass murderer Eugene De Kock from the time of apartheid in South Africa. These interviews are mixed in with stories of victims and criminals on both sides of the racial barrier that she met with during her time as a member of the Human Rights Violations Committee, a part of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The book focuses on her growing empathy for those pushed by a cruel system into losing their morality and becoming killers (killers from all races) and her attempt to understand what causes someone to be able to commit crimes against humanity, and is considered an examination of the broader impact of the Truth Commission process.
The book won the Alan Paton Award in 2004.
Pumla gobodo madikizela on forgiveness
Stage adaptation
A play, with the same title, was written in 2013 by Nicholas Wright, and produced at the Fugard Theater in Cape Town, the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, and the Hampstead Theatre in London.