Date: 22 - 27 November 2006
Venue: Kramer Building, Middle Campus, UCT.

Organisers: Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela & Chris van der Merwe, University of Cape Town
Contact: Jenni Kruger, Conference Liaison & Publicity Officer
Tel: 083 383 8080, Fax: 021 650 4104, e-mail: jenni.trc10@gmail.com

A conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars from across the globe to reflect on the work of the TRC in South Africa and its continuing impact across the globe. The programme will be extended to the public with a special evening programme of dialogue with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Mamphela Ramphele on 23 November, and with Alex Boraine, Dumisa Ntsebeza and Charles Villa-Vicencio on 24 November.

In the ten years since its establishment the TRC has been replicated in more than a dozen post-conflict settings globally. More than 120 scholars will present their reflections on memory, trauma, narrative, forgiveness and governance from experiences in Northern Ireland, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Mozambique, Liberia, Bosnia, Cambodia, the United States, Israel and Palestine. From a reputation of oppression and violent conflict, South Africa is now viewed as a benchmark for peaceful justice, humanity and compassionate leadership, of which Archbishop Tutu has become a symbol.

The keynote speaker for the conference, presenting on Wednesday 22nd, is Dr Vamik Volkan, a leading practitioner in the field of peace and psychology and twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 and 2006 for his work on reconciliation.

With Archbishop Tutu and Dr Mamphela Ramphele as respondents on the first evening public event, the audience will bear witness to four South African mothers' stories that tell of trauma followed by engagement and forgiveness. The stories take us from a SADF soldier killed in the Border Wars and the 'Mamelodi 10' to a survivor of the East London Highgate bombing and the peace-making conversation between a white woman and her would-be hijackers. The second night takes an international perspective, with stories from South Africa, Germany and Rwanda centring on the dialogue and reconciliation processes between the mother of a woman killed in a Cape Town restaurant and the same man who commanded the operation; second-generation Jewish and non-Jewish Germans; and Hutu and Tutsi women in post-conflict Rwanda.

The conference is co-hosted on Middle Campus, UCT by the UCT Humanities Faculty and the African Ethics Initiative of the University of KwaZulu Natal. The public events will be held in Lecture Theatre One in Kramer Building, Middle Campus, UCT. Bookings are not necessary and the audience is to be seated by 16h30 on the 23rd and by 17h30 on the 24th. For further information, registration and accommodation please visit www.trc10.co.za.

Publication in advance will allow the public time to register as delegates. For further publicity and general enquiries, please contact Jenni Kruger on 083 383 8080 or e-mail jenni.trc10@gmail.com

Date of issue: 7 November 2006.