Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa

While Krog focuses predominantly on racism and racial biases before, during, and after apartheid, she also frequently points out gender biases ingrained in South African culture at every level of society, regardless of race. Starting with the selection of the TRC, Krog notes that the commission asks potential female candidates if women should be on the commission, whereas men do not receive the same treatment. She also observes that some detractors are unhappy “over the absence of colored people on the list” (27), but that one of the women is colored, concluding, “Yes, yes, but everybody knows ‘people’ means ‘men’” (27).

Women’s second-class status helps Krog highlight how remarkable it is that the “sound” of the first narrative, i.e. the victims, is clearly female, as mothers and wives talk about the suffering they have endured in losing sons and husbands. Krog reinforces her observations about gender in Chapter 16, which focuses exclusively on black women and their experience with sexual violence. Rape is frequently employed as a way of subjugating women by using their sex against them, turning their own bodies into a “battleground.” Even the Afrikaans language contains inherent racism, as Krog’s friend observes: “The most despicable behavior, cowardice, and loss of control, we have equated with the actions of a black woman” (250).

Race is a primary theme of Country of My Skull, particularly the discussion of black versus white. However, a less prominent but no less important discussion takes place around black unity. Archbishop Tutu believes “that black people have access almost to a superior humanity, which enables them to do things that surpass cold logic” (145). He insists that black people have an underlying sense of unity and community that transcends all else, and many seem to agree with him. Even those who may not directly agree with him take the stance that black people must stick together, even if they disagree, because standing unified against white oppression is more important than any grievance they might have among themselves.

However, some blacks do not feel the same way; most notably, blacks victimized by other blacks during the worst parts of the fighting against apartheid. One of the black political parties, the IFP, goes so far as to generate a memo accusing the ANC of using the TRC for its own personal goals of trying to give themselves a privileged place over other antiapartheid forces. The memo states that the ANC “killed far more IFP members than the supporters of apartheid ever did” (133).