Interrogator Versus Political Prisoner: Silences, Secrets and the Unsaid – A Question of Power

Abstract

This personal reflection explores the question of power between interrogator/torturer and prisoner/victim. Are there times during interrogation that the prisoner/victim has power? At which moment might the victim/survivor succumb to the demands of the interrogator/torturer? How do interrogators see their power? I frame these questions within events in Cape Town, South Africa, during the states of emergency in the 1980s. In 1988, i was detained under the Internal Security Act and held in solitary confinement. The only human interaction i had was with white Afrikaner male interrogators. In this essay i explore how these gender, language, class, race, ideological and patriarchal power polarities played themselves out. I also look at the extent to which aspects of reparations, rehabilitation and the restoration of dignity and healing have been achieved. Finally, i consider the power dynamics between the victim/survivor and interrogator after the events, especially during a new dispensation.