And we forgave them: Stories from Struggle Against Apartheid in Venda, South Africa

Following the bombing of the Sibasa police station in October 1981, the Vendaland security police persecuted four Lutheran church pastors. This book tells the story of two of these men. The first‐person experience of torture of Ndanganeni Peter Phaswana, ably refracted through his capacity for reflection on forgiveness and reparation, offers one lens. The second lens is via the experience of Lillian Tendani Muofhe, as she sought to absorb the murder of her revered husband Isaac Tshifhiwa Muofhe, while mothering her infant daughter.

Both accounts hold up a mirror to South African society, present and past, and offer powerful lenses for engaging with the ways in which trauma lodges, sometimes intractably, in the individual unconscious as well as in the collective unconscious of a society.

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 Contents

Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Bearing moral witness to South Africa’s trauma Michael O’Loughlin

Chapter 1: The context: The workings of apartheid in the Venda Bantustan/Homeland Ndanganeni Peter Phaswana

Chapter 2: Childhood & family life under apartheid Ndanganeni Peter Phaswana’s early years Lillian Muofhe’s early years

Chapter 3: Adolescent and early adult life under apartheid Ndanganeni Peter Phaswana’s adolescent and early adult years Lillian Muofhe’s adolescent and early adult years

Chapter 4: Spiritual formation and Lutheran resistance to apartheid Ndanganeni Peter Phaswana’s journey Lillian and Tshifhiwa Isaac Muofhe’s journey

Chapter 5: The Sibasa bombing and its aftermath Ndanganeni Peter Phaswana’s struggle Lillian and Tshifhiwa Isaac Muofhe’ struggles

Chapter 6: Reconciliation & forgiveness: Theological reflections Ndanganeni Peter Phaswana   Afterword Andrea Fröchtling

 Index