The Apartheid Archive

The apartheid archive was conceptualized and initiated in August 2008 by 22 core researchers located at universities spanning South Africa, Australia, the United States and United Kingdom. In June 2009, about 50 academics and researchers met at Wits University to set up the Apartheid Archive Project. The idea was to record details of everyday experiences of apartheid in the lives of ordinary South Africans in order to document, interrogate and acknowledge how racism impacted on everyone, and thereby fuel the transformation agenda in diverse ways. It would show how traumatizing racism is for the victim and how complicity affects the perpetrator/beneficiary/bystander(to use Gillian Straker's all-encompassing term for us whites). By so doing it is hoped that these experiences can be psychologically integrated instead of being disavowed.

Initially the accounts were written by the participants, their colleagues and friends. Everyone was asked to write about their earliest and/or significant experiences of racism under apartheid and how these affected their lives. They now want to broaden the accounts to include many different kinds of South Africans and you can submit your own story online. A number of research articles have already been written based on the archive.

Take a look at this extraordinary account of probably fairly ordinary behaviour of white adolescent boys (cited by Tamara Shefer in South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 40(4), 2010. p390):

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine - Part II

The Organizers and Volunteers
The South African organizers came mostly from the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), Cosatu and some group allied to Desmond Tutu. The volunteers seemed to be young members of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement in Cosatu or various student left wing groups allied to BDS or PSC. Quite a few people asked me what organisation I hailed from. After the first uncomfortable meeting in which I interrupted some derogatory anti-Jewish comments, my stock reply to these questions was "I am the Zionist spy." It raised the odd surprised laugh. Of-course, they were concerned about protests, hecklers and the like. Security was tight and some old struggle fantasies about whites and the police were projected onto Jews. At one meeting, someone suggested the Jewish Defence League might turn up with their guns. It was laughable. "In your dreams", I thought, because of-course, that improbable event would recognise the Tribunal as a threat to Israel.
Attendance
The organisers were also worried about attendance. 600 people had been invited including the State President.

How does a Diaspora Jew Get to Feel OK?

With great difficulty I would say. Although many of us may lead comfortable lives, the life of a Diaspora Jew is mostly uncomfortable. Being part of any minority group requires constant questioning as you try to keep thinking, educate your children, preserve your culture and not fall into victim or oppressor roles. Furthermore, how one expresses one's identity is forever changing depending on where one lives and the changing contexts of a particular country. For instance, I would wear a Star of David in England because it states that I am proud to be a Jew and I will not be rendered invisible as a Jew. If I wore a Star of David in South Africa, it would mean to most Muslims and possibly others, that I am a Zionist and that I support the actions of the state of Israel.

Harvey Jackins

Jewish Oppression
As I say in my article about the Russell Tribunal, I used to be an anti-Zionist. That was until I met Harvey Jackins, the leader of Re-evaluation Counselling (RC), who understood the nature of Jewish oppression and who, together with Jews belonging to the RC Communities developed a draft policy on Jewish Liberation. He had observed during his radical youth, that Jews tended to take up two positions: 1) we joined left-wing organisations and fought for everyone else's liberation except our own or 2) we tended towards ghettoisation within our own communities. The key distress we carry is one of isolation and we do not expect to have allies.

Enduring Impressions of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine - Part I

It is a while since the third session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine was held in Cape Town at the District Six Museum. I needed time to reflect on the impact it had on me. I volunteered to help on the weekend of the 5th and 6th November 2011 with some trepidation. I was pretty sure there would not be many Jews there other than the diehard anti-Zionist variety like Ronnie Kasrils (a former South African Government Minister and one of the jurists) or Max Ozinsky (an ANC stalwart and invited guest). However, there were some Israelis on the witness list, and in any case, once I'd Googled it, it seemed more interesting to go than not to. I'd been asked by a former colleague, so I wondered if the organisers thought they needed trauma counsellors. To be there in my professional role felt easier than being there as a Jew.

I need to explain myself - years ago, in my more radical youth, I used to be a staunch anti-Zionist. but I had changed my position over the years. (see post above). Now, after 44 years of Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, I thought it might be an idea to reassess the situation.

Preparing to Land

Imagine this: It's five days before Xmas. Nineteen people, mostly Capetonians, arrive at Bloemfontein airport to catch a plane back to Cape Town. They all know each other in a very specific context - they dance together. They have been dancing with 120 others for 5 days. Its not your ordinary kind of gyrate on the dance floor to rock or fast stepping twirls like salsa or even the erotic engagement of the tango, although it can encompass any of these. Its Biodanza - a way of freely expressing oneself to music and it includes contact and sensuality.

We are in the departure lounge. Our departure time comes and goes - we are not called. Eventually we discover that if only our plane had not switched its engines off, we could have taken off. But since they did switch off, we can't. There is a defective part for which we will have to wait. We begin to get to know each other in ways we never have before - about our lives and work. We have quite a bit of fun. At about the time we should have arrived in Cape Town, SAA finally decides to put us up at a hotel for the night and we will have to fly to Johannesburg (JHB) on the morrow to get to Cape Town - a route which is counter-intuitive to any normal modes of thinking other than that of airlines. This is devastating news for one or two (like some Italians who have to make their connection to Rome for Xmas) but not really for most of us - it being the holiday season.

Sometimes it can get Crowded in the Consulting Room

Painting by Ken -Artist Kim Noble's alter 

I was catapulted into the then-uncharted territory of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) - previously multiple personality disorder - one day in the early 70's, when a woman client I had been seeing for almost 2 years, came for her regular session and remarked that I had painted my walls a different colour and wasn't there someone who played the piano in one of the other rooms of the flat? I was a bit taken aback - I hadn't had any painting done recently and no-one lived in that room any more. In those days, I was a recently qualified psychotherapist and much as it pains me to admit it, I took notes in sessions. On this particular day it stood me in good stead. Writing down her observations helped me to think. I'd seen and read "The Three Faces of Eve", I'd seen "Sybil". Was I sitting with such a person? "When were you last here?" I asked - as of-course anyone would, who was certain they'd seen their client for their usual session the previous week! "I came once when She was drunk," came the immediate insouciant reply.

Community Organisation Prioritises Individual Counselling

CASE (Community Action towards a Safer Environment) is a unique NGO located in the Hanover Park community on the Cape Flats. This is an area ridden with gang violence. In the short time that I have been marginally involved with this organisation, (since August 2010) there have been two major outbreaks of violence. Unfortunately, it is often young children who get caught in the crossfire. But the whole situation used to be much worse. The improvement could well be due to the existence of this organisation, which is housed in a few cream-coloured containers in the grounds of Mountview High School. The person who provides the firing passion behind this community-development-engine is Lane Benjamin, a clinical psychologist, mother of two, currently completing her Ph.D. She started CASE about 10 years ago while still working at the Trauma Centre.

End of year graduation party of the Literacy Group

On 28th September 2011, CASE went public. They launched a series of Training Manuals and Workshops hoping to spread their development model to other community organisations.  

So what makes them special?
I think what distinguishes this organisation is 1) they start with individuals and their personal development, 2) they incorporate an understanding of the impact of trauma on learning and 3) expertise develops and remains within the community.

I would guess that their premise - that to break the cycle of violence you have to start with individuals and their personal development - might not be very popular currently with government or with funders. The theory that informs this is that most South African communities are traumatised firstly by the degradations of the past, which have been passed on to later generations through intergenerational transmission of trauma, and secondly, by the continuous violence in the present. The major ways in which this is manifest in each family is through dissociation, addictions, family violence and learning difficulties