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Dr. van Zyl: South Africa has been in the media a great deal in this last decade. During this time, it has negotiated a political transition from a draconian apartheid government to a country governed by one of the most enlightened constitutions in the world, a constitution with a clear focus on human rights for all South African citizens. This achievement is all the more remarkable because many in the new government are individuals who personally suffered atrocities and trauma under the old regime, a history which one might not predict would lead to the lack of bitterness, tolerance, and respect for human life which underpins the new constitution and the new government's stated philosophy. However, this constitution was forged by the leaders of the country, and one wonders what is happening on the ground, at the grass roots of South African society. Surely apartheid has left deep psychological wounds? How are these being addressed, and what is the role of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC] in this process? Before addressing these questions, however, perhaps you could say a little about yourself and your involvement in the struggle for liberation in South Africa.
Dr. Straker: I am a white South African by birth and have lived my whole life in Johannesburg except for short sojourns in the United States and the UK. I trained as a clinical psychologist and qualified in 1972. I grew up in a sequestered, sheltered world well away from township life, as did most middle-class white South Africans during the 1950s and 60s.
I really only became aware of the political situation in South Africa at the age of 30, when I was promoted to a chair in applied psychology at a largely white university. As the youngest woman to have occupied