“Pero si no he acabado… Tengo más que contar”: las limitaciones de las narraciones estructuradas de los testimonios públicos

Persons who submitted applications to give testimony received very clear guidance on where their stories should begin, and where they should end; those who wanted to contextualize their experiences of loss were not allowed a platform to contemplate the wider causes of their suffering. Some who gave testimony before the TRC recalled afterwards the acute pain brought on by the lack of closure which they experienced in this process. Capturing stories of traumatic experience demands that listeners are able and willing to follow the speaker into unanticipated places. But this requires time and resources, which truth commissions are not necessarily able to provide in adequate measure.