A Human Being Died that Night by Pumla Gobodo- Madikizela

Under Apartheid, the white controlled South Afirican government allowed covert programs of horrific violence in order to control the black majority. After Apartheid ended, South Africa instituted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in order to bring to light the atrocities that happened under Apartheid. Ms. Gobodo-Madikela was a clinical psychologist who served on this commission. She became interested in meeting with the commanding officer of government death squads, de Kock, after two widows of men he killed met with him and spoke of how deeply his remorse touched them.

This book talks about Ms. Gobodo-Madikela's meetings with de Kock, and their impact on her feelings on evil, remorse, and forgiveness. I enjoyed how fully she acknowledges that the circumstances of a person's life frame how they see the world and how easily they can push the person in to seeing evil as good. Yet, while fully understanding this, she never fails to hold them accountable and still call them evil. I think that's interesting. When a person feels remorse and I see their humanity, I want to call them good and their actions/ thought processes evil. But at that point, what does evil even mean? Almost everybody sees their own actions as justified. And those that do not see it that way and have no remorse are almost by definition insane.

While she holds de Kock as evil, she also argues strongly for his humanity. She states that so many around her wanted to label him evil and then see him as an "other". She states "demonizing as monsters those who commit evil lets them off too easily... [it would] excuse the criminal by dismissing him in the category of the hopelessly, radically other." She says we can't do that. Part of being human is being capable of great evil. To not see that and to instead separate it as something a normal person is not capable of is to fail to learn from the past's lessons about human nature. Only if we understand just how capable each and every one of is of committing evil can we truly question if we ourselves are committing evil.

Ms. Gobodo-Madikela also makes the argument for the necessity of forgiveness for all. She cites the healing power that forgiveness has on victims and evil doers alike. I found the book an interesting and honest exploration of these topics. She never fails to acknowledge her own capacity for wanting to justify evil as good in the name of a cause she supports and in so doing invites readers to see this within themselves.

I see this capacity in myself. I can think of several cruel things I've done and justified in the name of a "higher" cause. I've long thought the worst evils committed in this world are done by people who probably think they're doing something good. Whenever a situation becomes "us" versus "them" instead of two groups of deeply human people who might disagree, I think there is potential for type of dehumanization that can lead to evil.