Antjie Krog's book is an attempt to come to terms with South Africa's past through the experience of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I'm not too sure whether she succeded in that attempt by the end of the book, but what is undeniable is that it makes the reader understand the power of narrative in trying to give order to the past, however chaotic this might have been. I found Krog's poetic style somewhat distracting, and, sometimes, she dwells on irrelevant details. However, her accounts of the many testimonies she attended while reporting on the TRC are oftentimes powerful and heartwrenching, and they deserve to be read by anyone interested in understanding what was South Africa under the apartheid regime. I highly recommend this book.

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

One of the greatest social laboratories of change in modern times was the collapse of apartheid and the birth of the modern democratic Republic of South Africa. Out of the civic catharsis embodied in this collapse and the subsequent racial and political somersault of South African society, a unique and classic venue for human rights, The South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), was created.
In this deeply moving book, Antjie Krog, South African poet and child of the Free State, has compiled a compelling record of the TRC. The reader will receive an immediate and powerful exposure to Bishop Edmund Tutu's Ubuntu theology (the harmony between individual and community) as an embodiment of the ancient African Weltganschauung (a person is human precisely in the community of other human beings).
Again, it is the poet who elucidates for the rest of us the heart of man-as-community. Utilizing a first-person dialogue within a keen observational and lovely prosaic style, Antjie Krog enables us to enter both the foreheads of perpetrators of violence and the hearts of its victims. It also includes rare insights into the indifference and guilt of both white and black citizens during the apartheid regime. In this chronicle of the TRC, we witness an abiding desire to expose the dark past in constructing the crucial accountability to future generations. This, as Antjie Krog so lovingly describes, is the miracle rebirth her "wide and woeful land."
This fascinating journaling of the petitions before the TRC - the angst in seeking a common unity - reveals a redeeming Phoenix of truth in the ashes of apartheid. Antjie Krog's unique documentation of the proceedings of the TRC is a valued record of modern South African history. This is a beautifully written and classic case-study of essential "transparency" in global constitutional democracy.

Jess Maghan, Chester, Ct.
05 February 2002

I purchased this book in South Africa in March, 1998. I lived in Cape Town in 1984 and 1985 and was surrounded by the emerging events that ultimately led to the demise of Apartheid. This book is powerful since it is written by an Afrikaner author who not only relates the horrors presented before the Truth & Reconciliation Commission but also shares her own struggle to reconcile herself with the legacy of her country. This will be a challenge for the reader without first hand knowledge of Aparthied South Africa. Anyone who wants to struggle to understand such a place must read this book.