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

Race plays an integral part in South Africa’s history before, during, and after apartheid, and by extension, plays an enormous role in Country of My Skull. Virtually every aspect of the text involves race to some degree, from the bare facts of the TRC’s formation and operation, to how people use language, to the ways different people process their emotions. Everything about the TRC rests on different racial points of view.

Race divisions are apparent from the opening chapter of the text, where conflicting political parties—the ANC and the NP—argue over the creation of the TRC. The ANC and NP’s disagreements continue even as the TRC goes about its work. Both parties initially refuse to cooperate with the TRC, then eventually do, but only to a point. The NP claims that the ANC runs the TRC and that the ANC will therefore demonize the NP regardless of what it does. The ANC balks at the notion that anyone might hold it accountable for atrocities committed while fighting a just war against apartheid.

Black and white victims process their grief differently, and Krog chooses to highlight those differences starkly. Where black victims often come across as devastated but honorable, standing tall even as they grieve and feeling satisfied either finally knowing the