Experiences of violence and the formation of the political : embodied memory and victimhood in South Africa

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a form of governance that has had effects on lived apartheid-era victimhood. Mandated to look into the apartheid past and facilitate a way forward for the post-apartheid society, the institution generated a dominant discourse on victimhood. As a consequence, victims since have to relate their experiences of violence to this discourse if they want to be politically effective. The contribution shows that embodied knowledge of experienced harm is the source of any political articulation. It therefore suggests a phenomenological perspective on how people relate their personhood to attempts of governance.