Tuning silences: gender and moralities in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

• Grant number: 24/17396-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Laura Moutinho da Silva
• Grantee: Maria José Iachinski
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/08413-4 - (Un)bearable conditions: bureaucratic imperatives, spaces, subjects and relationships in Southern Africa, AP.R

Abstract

The aim of this master's project is to analyze the testimonies given by women, victims of apartheid, to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) from a perspective that prioritizes the intersection between the moralities involved in this legal process and the category of gender. Apartheid, the regime in place in South Africa until 1994, constructed a racial legal framework that defined different types of citizenship. The TRC, in turn, sought to give voice to those who experienced the regime through public hearings, where forgiveness and reconciliation-eminently moral categories-became key terms in a political economy aimed at uniting the country. I intend to identify how the different moralities were engaged by the individuals involved in this legal process, and specifically how women mobilized various spheres of language in their testimonies alongside the moral framework of the TRC.