Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
| Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela | |
|---|---|
 Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela in 2011
|
|
| Born | Pumla Phillipa Gobodo 15 February 1955 Langa, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa |
| Residence | Clinical Psychologist |
| Awards | Official website |
| Academic work | |
| Main interests | Traumatic Memories, Post-conflict reconciliation, empathy, forgiveness, psychoanalysis and Intersubjectivity |
| Notable ideas | Empathic Repair; Making Public Spaces Intimate |
Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (born 15 February 1955) is a senior research professor in trauma, memory and forgiveness at the University of the Free State in South Africa. She graduated from Fort Hare University with a Bachelor’s degree and an Honours degree in psychology. She obtained her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Rhodes University. She received her PhD in psychology from the University of Cape Town. Her doctoral thesis, entitled "Legacies of violence: An in-depth analysis of two case studies based on interviews with perpetrators of a 'necklace' murder and with Eugene de Kock", offers a perspective that integrates psychoanalytic and social psychological concepts to understand extreme forms of violence committed during the apartheid era. Her main interests are traumatic memories in the aftermath of political conflict, post-conflict reconciliation, empathy, forgiveness, psychoanalysis and intersubjectivity. She served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). She currently works at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein as a senior research professor.
Gobodo-Madikizela was born in Langa Township, the oldest residential area for Black Africans in Cape Town. The eldest daughter of William Wilberforce Tukela and Nobantu Herman-Gilda Gobodo, she was given the names Pumla Phillipa by her parents. Influenced by the Black Consciousness Movement, which she joined during her high school days, she dropped her English middle name, and formalised the name change later in her adulthood. Gobodo-Madikizela attended Inanda Seminary, a boarding school for girls near Durban, which was founded and run by the American Board of Missions, and at the time the only private school for black girls in South Africa. She credits her parents with having taught her a deep sense of caring for others, integrity and a strong work ethic. She described her early childhood as “happy, despite apartheid.” Yet she also talks about how she discovered the beauty of Cape Town only in her adulthood when she visited the city after the historic welcoming of Nelson Mandela from Pollsmoor Prison in February 1990, and relocating to Cape Town to study for her PhD at the University of Cape Town in 1991.
...
Wikipedia