Mother of South African murder victim speaks Sept. 3 about forgiveness

August 28, 2003
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EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: Sept. 3, 2003

TIME: 7 p.m. J.A. (Ginn) Fourie, mother of a South African murder victim and perpetrator advocate, with Letlape Mphahlele, former commander of the Pan Africanist Congress’s military wing, who ordered the attack that killed Fourie’s daughter.

EVENT: Ginn Fourie, whose only daughter died in the 1993 Heidelberg Massacre in Cape Town, South Africa, will speak about forgiveness and justice. Fourie, a professor of physiotherapy at the University of Cape Town, is a highly respected but controversial figure in South Africa because she has become an advocate of professional help for perpetrators of political violence. Fourie believes that such individuals, including leaders of the Pan Africanist Congress who ordered the attack that killed her 23-year-old daughter, need assistance to help them face their demons and become integrated into society. During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings, and in meetings with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others, Fourie continues to urge that counseling be made available for perpetrators as well as victims of political violence. “The death of my daughter ripped my heart out,” says Fourie, who will talk about the journey from trauma and violence to forgiveness and true reconciliation that includes justice. At the criminal trial of the three members of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) who were convicted of killing her daughter, Fourie met and shook hands with her daughter’s killers and told them that she had forgiven them. Later, during their request for amnesty at the TRC hearings, she hugged each of them, reflecting the depth of community she had developed with them. More recently, Fourie has been making joint presentations in South Africa with Letlapa Mphahlele, the PAC commander who ordered the attack in which her daughter was killed.

PLACE: U-M Central Campus in Auditorium 3 of the U-M Modern Languages Building (MLB), 812 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor. For a map, visit: http://www.umich.edu/news/ccamp.html

SPONSOR: Co-sponsored by the Survey Research Center of the U-M Institute for Social Research; the Department of Sociology; the U-M Center for Afroamerican and African Studies; the U-M South Africa Initiative; and Campus Hope. WEB LINKS: For more information about ISR, visit http://www.isr.umich.edu/ For the Department of Sociology: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/soc/Default.asp For the U-M Center for Afroamerican and African studies: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/caas/ U-M South Africa Initiative: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/saio/

PHOTO: For a downloadable picture, go to: http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2003/Aug03/fourie

Web: www.isr.umich.edu

http://www.umich.edu/news/ccamp.html