Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

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Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a professor and South African National Research Foundation Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma at Stellenbosch University, focuses her research on trauma in the aftermath of gross human rights violations and on remorse and forgiveness that emerge in victim-perpetrator dialogues. Her work explores the transgenerational repercussions of apartheid and considers, in the wake of recent nationwide students’ protests in South Africa, whether notions of forgiveness and reconciliation carry the same meaning for the post-apartheid generation as they did during the transition after apartheid.

At Radcliffe, Pumla returns to the archive of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to think through the horrific violence in contemporary South Africa. Is this violence a reflection of “ghosts” from the past, the death of hope in the present, or a combination of both? 

Looking at the possibility of repair and “healing” of what remains of violent histories and what continues transgenerationally, she will explore ways in which a sense of solidarity and responsible citizenship might be restored through what she terms “reparative humanism.” The project will culminate in a book titled “Aesthetics of Memory and Narratives of Repair.”

Pumla earned a PhD in psychology from the University of Cape Town. Among her honors are an honorary doctorate of theology from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, an honorary doctorate of law from Rhodes University, and a Christopher Award and the Alan Paton Award for her first book, A Human Being Died that Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness (Houghton Mifflin, 2003).

Pumla was an incredible INSPIRE Fellow (Institute Scholar/Practitioner In Residence) in 2000 at the Institute. She taught the Institute's first summer course on the Politics of Reconciliation and Forgiveness. She mentored our students, hosted them in South Africa, and was the stimulus for a significant senior honors thesis in history “

Pumla’s integrity, sensitivity, ethical clarity, embrace of complexity and boldness of vision was inspiring for me in my own wrestling to transcend the impact of the Holocaust on my family.  She was a wonderfully worthy recipient of our Dr. Jean Mayer Award for Global Citizenship.

Twenty years later we have renewed our friendship. She told me her Mayer plaque hangs proudly in her office, and we are presently working on a Convisero webinar on resilience and trauma with her, and another Convisero Mentor, Justine Hardy.  We will be looking at ways to identify and prepare research interns for her, 

In 2001 Pumla had written me: 

I would like to explore ways in which we could replicate the approach you use at EPIIC. I have always been inspired by your idea of bringing people together from diverse academic, cultural, and political backgrounds to engage in vigorous discussions. I have no doubt getting black and white students at Stellenbosch, where I’ll be based next year to work on intellectually stimulating projects, that also have emotional and political implications would be such an amazing project. 

Pumla has invited me to South Africa, and we are discussing ways in which the Trebuchet/Convisero approach might be brought to Stellenbosch University, especially given recent nationwide students’ protests in South Africa. 

 Pumla recently wrote a reflection on Desmond Tutu’s legacy, which was published in the Daily Maverick in January of 2022.