Love and Politics: Sister Quinlan and the Future We Have Desired

Seamus Heaney (like Stimpson and Parker in this issue) speaks of: "A historic dialectic [which] exists between the beautiful and the bestial". In this speech, delivered on 13 December 2012, Njabulo Ndebele reflects on the stories South Africa tells itself about past atrocity, as a way of achieving "the future we have desired". Ndebele informs that the telling of the story of the killing of Sister Quinlan in the classroom would have been considered by the state as a subversive act. His impression is that the story of Sister Quinlan has most probably not been told at any school since 1994, when telling it would not only be permitted but would also be considered a necessary act of citizenship. The author asks: If the official curriculum of the time of his upbringing would never allow the telling of the story of Sister Quinlan, why are they not telling her story in their schools today?