Remembering the truth : an oral history perspective on the victim hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, 1996-1998

English: Every individual, family and place has a history of its own which may contribute knowledge and understanding to the study of history. Written sources are not always readily available on all themes or periods and/or are at times inadequate. Oral history can provide a type of historical source to gain information, fill gaps and add to a more balanced view of events and occurrences. By using oral history methods the researcher may obtain, from the lips of the living survivors/victims, a fuller record of their participation in events of historical significance by tending to the complex legacy of memory. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC) shone a profoundly illuminating spotlight on South Africa’s past. The Commission’s mandate, as contained in the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act No. 34 of 1995, had to provide the space within which victims could share the story of their trauma with the nation. The Human Rights Violations Committee (HRV Committee) filled this vacuum, providing a more complete picture of the past as it emanated from the larger narratives of victims. These victim hearings in particular, meant that thousands who experienced human rights violations could convey their story. The public nature of these hearings broke the silence, lifted the veil of secrecy and gave authority to the voices of ordinary people. Through the process of personal recollection, the Commission could provide more answers for more people to gain ultimately a more all-inclusive picture of what constituted the past. The study highlights the importance of oral history by using the victim hearings of the South African TRC as a case study where ordinary people were given an opportunity to tell their stories. Thus, this research brings another perspective and dimension to the reliability of oral testimonies made before the TRC. To assess the workable successes of oral evidence, the challenges facing oral history are explored by examining the problematic nature, limitations and usefulness of memory as a potential source of oral evidence. Furthermore, the limitations of memory are taken into account to test the reliability of oral accounts when striving for the creation of a more representative all-inclusive history. Within this context, the significance of the establishment of a Commission on Truth and Reconciliation for South Africa as the formal genesis of another process of confronting the past through official truth-seeking, is emphasised. Against this background, the victim hearings of the TRC where ordinary people could express their views and illuminate a fragment of the past transmitted by word of mouth, are evaluated. Only if one understands oral history, with its focus on memory and narrative, can one begin to try to fathom the oral narratives made before the TRC’s Committee on Human Rights Violations as a broader process of events and an account of human experience that took place in the South African history. Using the TRC as a model for confronting a tormented and divided history, the study provides deeper insights into and a greater analytical understanding of past human rights violations through oral narratives and the process of coming to terms with it.