The Live Witness in the Archive: Analysing Live Witness Testimony in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Archival Project

Abstract

ABSTRACT While widely studied, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission produced an archive that still calls for deeper scholarly engagement. Its archive calls to mind Eric Ketelaar’s (2000, “Archivistics Research Saving the Profession.” American Archivist 63 (2): 322–340; 2001. “Tacit Narratives: The Meanings of Archives.” Archival Science 1 (2): 131–141) concept of archivalisation which is concerned with how things are considered archive worthy and subsequently how the archive is accessed and what is extracted. This article offers an in-depth analysis of one witness testimony, that of Mrs Bessie Mdoda, to make a case for taking seriously the ‘liveness’ of witness testimony to the commission's archival ideal. While the TRC archive is replete with errors in interpretation, transcription and translation and omits many of the commission’s processes, materials and bureaucracy from its record, it still contains enough for scholars to listen to what is there. Via the analysis of one oral narrative, I argue that when closely read in context and with awareness of difference, witness testimony may challenge many of the prevailing assumptions about how people interacted with the commission as witnesses, especially black women. Using one woman’s testimony, I point to the possibilities of going beyond archivalisation and suggest that the TRC archive requires an ethical and engaged user who pays attention to the liveness of the testimony and bears witness by closely reading the given narratives within their immediate and historical context.