Tears of shame and rage

Illa Thompson

Open arms, open minds, open hearts: 50 men, women and young people from Africa joined local people to share stories of their experience of xenophobia and creative ideas to combat the scourge.

Stories of trauma, shame, fear and rage were shared at the Durban Holocaust and Genocide Centre on Thursday. Impassioned and horrific anecdotes of intimidation, murder, torture, bullying and jealousy taking place unchecked on the streets of Durban were recounted.

“Atrocities, such as the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, teach us the high price of silence and indifference,” said Mary Kluk, founder of the centre, the deputy president of the World Jewish Congress and a patron of the Denis Hurley Centre. “It reminds us what can happen when human rights abuses go unchecked and when we treat each other badly with words which turn violent,” she said.