In the year following South Africa's first democratic elections, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to investigate human rights abuses committed under the apartheid regime. Presided over by God's own diplomat, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the first hearings of the commission were held in April 1996. During the following two years of hearings, South Africans were daily exposed to revelations and public testimony about their traumatic past, and--like the world that looked on--continued to discover that the relationship between truth and reconciliation is far more complex than they had ever imagined.

Antjie Krog, a prominent South African poet and journalist, led the South African Broadcasting Corporation team that for two years reported daily on the hearings. Extreme forms of torture, abuse, and state violence were the daily fare of the Truth Commission. Many of those involved with its proceedings, including Krog herself, suffered personal stresses--ill health, mental breakdown, dissolution of relationships--in the face of both the relentless onslaught of the truth and the continuing subterfuges of unrelenting perpetrators. Like the Truth Commission itself, Country of My Skull gives central prominence to the power of the testimony of the victims, combining a journalist's reportage skills with the poet's ability to give voice to stories previously unheard. --Rachel Holmes

Ever since Nelson Mandela dramatically walked out of prison in 1990 after twenty-seven years behind bars, South Africa has been undergoing a radical transformation. In one of the most miraculous events of the century, the oppressive system of apartheid was dismantled. Repressive laws mandating separation of the races were thrown out. The country, which had been carved into a crazy quilt that reserved the most prosperous areas for whites and the most desolate and backward for blacks, was reunited. The dreaded and dangerous security force, which for years had systematically tortured, spied upon, and harassed people of color and their white supporters, was dismantled. But how could this country--one of spectacular beauty and promise--come to terms with its ugly past? How could its people, whom the oppressive white government had pitted against one another, live side by side as friends and neighbors?

To begin the healing process, Nelson Mandela created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by the renowned cleric Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Established in 1995, the commission faced the awesome task of hearing the testimony of the victims of apartheid as well as the oppressors. Amnesty was granted to those who offered a full confession of any crimes associated with apartheid. Since the commission began its work, it has been the central player in a drama that has riveted the country. In this book, Antjie Krog, a South African journalist and poet who has covered the work of the commission, recounts the drama, the horrors, the wrenching personal stories of the victims and their families. Through the testimonies of victims of abuse and violence, from the appearance of Winnie Mandela to former South African president P. W. Botha's extraordinary courthouse press conference, this award-winning poet leads us on an amazing journey.

Country of My Skull captures the complexity of the Truth Commission's work. The narrative is often traumatic, vivid, and provocative. Krog's powerful prose lures the reader actively and inventively through a mosaic of insights, impressions, and secret themes. This compelling tale is Antjie Krog's profound literary account of the mending of a country that was in colossal need of change.

Antjie Krog is a South African writer and poet who covered the South African Truth and Reconciliation commission hearings. She wrote this book about the experience, from the particular point of view of a South African of Afrikaner background.

I found this book both difficult to read, and difficult to put down. Krog chooses extremely compelling stories to highlight, and the impact is visceral. She asks some very smart and difficult questions about what truth and reconciliation can possibly mean in a country burdened with such a history. The Country of My Skull does an excellent job in providing possible answers to these hard questions, while acknowledging that she may not be the person to either have an opinion or have an answer. She seems to continually ask who are judges and who are victims, given the situation.

While I liked that she shared her own experience of the Commission honestly, there were times when I felt that the focus on her personal life weakened the book. Made it overly poetic, somehow. When she discusses the Death Fugue of Celan, she makes the point that there are some subjects that poetry cannot and perhaps should not touch. I sympathize with the desire to use that kind of precise and metaphoric language, but it increases the distance.

This seems to me an important book. Four and a half stars.

A. Krog writes an amazing piece revolving around the events pertinent to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the emergence of the African National Congress in the politics of South Africa. Graphic descriptions of militant and counterinsurgent armed activity in the apartheid government, and first person testimony to the TRC of human rights violations from many parties. Krog's recollections are necessarily emotionally derived and sometimes difficult for this reason to follow analytically, particularly to one not immersed in South African history and cultures. Extensive use of indigenous languages with helpful translations and a glossary of common local parlance included, which makes the reading much more interpretable. The book is written assuming the reader is familiar with the political events immediately prior to the institution of the TRC and the dissolution of apartheid politics. An excellent piece for any world history or political science student.

Antjie Krog writes with a poet's power of observation both with inner feelings as well as to witness the outer complexities of people's pain and truth. Whose truth, which truth, and at what time? The Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings which she followed along with many other reporters, becomes a focal point for the process of hearing these complexities as well as offering the possibilityes for healing in a country struggling to understand the tensions between global change and the bonds of tribal and cultural loyalties and traditions. Krog offers us a chance to participate in this as well as to reflect on our own healing processes and sort out the complexities of many truths we live with.

A great book, telling a part of a nation's history, that must never been forgotten

As a British engineer living in South Africa for 15 years I obviously lived on another planet compared to this lady. Maybe because I worked in black townships and saw things as an outside observer I was not burdened by self loathing and idealistic fantasy that make up much of this work. Sure bad things happen in old wars in Africa or new ones like Iraq, but I can't help feeling that we have been here before. Atrocities happened in Rhodesia but despite the false dawn and liberal accolades that welcomed Mugabe in the same way them as they welcomed Mandela now, we ended up with worse country not a better one. I think that when we all look back on this period in years to come and unburdened by the current plague of political correctness that blights our times, we will realise that those who should ask for forgiveness are the liberal media elites who destroyed South Africa and the hopes of all its people both black and white.