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>> 53 3 Understanding Crimes of Allegiance Patterns of Violent Influence Any study of violent perpetrators confronts a fundamental paradox: the abundance of cruelty throughout human history and the absence of people who think of themselves as cruel. To help resolve this paradox and to account for systematic, widespread brutality, this chapter analyzes the testimony of violent perpetrators, identifying the influences and choices that shaped ordinary people to behave with extraordinary brutality and the thought processes that motivated and rationalized these behaviors. The focus of the chapter is on the remembered experiences of violent perpetrators when planning and carrying out attacks on others—the phenomenology of collective violence, as disclosed in testimony to the Amnesty Committee of the TRC. The main goal of this analysis is to reveal the structural and conceptual foundations of systemic violence: the necessary organizational and cognitive influences for motivating and maintaining collective violence.1 Testimony to the Amnesty Committee of the TRC revealed that the motivations and actions of perpetrators were neither so simple that they could be summarized in a few maxims nor so complicated that they could not be identified and categorized. Studying many individual cases revealed patterns of systemic influence, as well as commonalities in the thought processes of perpetrators: the underlying beliefs, the thoughts at the time of planning and committing the acts of violence, and the reactions afterward. A Structural Framework for Collective Violence To account for the actions of violent perpetrators, this chapter begins with a case analysis of mob violence and then applies this analysis to 54 > 55 In testimony, Easy Nofemela directly invoked the first two levels of influence: a platform of personal history and priming: “On the day in question and during that period, I was highly politically motivated, not only by the political climate in the township, but also by the militant political speeches made at the PASO meeting which I attended.” Ntombeku Peni focused on the second level, priming: “On the day in question when Amy Biehl was killed, the PASO leadership implored and instructed us to assist APLA in its struggle in making the country ungovernable and by preparing the groundwork for APLA operators .” Later Peni said, “If we were not sent out to act, I would not have done it.” In fact, Peni and Mongesi Manqina interpreted these priming speeches by the PASO leadership as orders. Peni said, “At the time we were told to act and help APLA to fight and burn down government vehicles so that South Africa would be ungovernable. We obeyed the orders.” Manqina added, “When the PASO executive members ordered us . . . to make the township ungovernable, I regarded this as an instruction to also harm, injure, and kill white people.” Manqina spoke directly of the trigger: “When I saw that the driver of the vehicle which we had stoned, and which had come to a standstill, was a white person, I immediately asked one of the comrades in the crowd for a knife.” Nofemela also described the triggering event: “That day we were very much emotional and we find Amy in our location.” Nofemela then elaborated on the final moments: “I saw Amy Biehl stumble across the road. I jumped off the bakkie and ran toward her also throwing stones at her. As we pursued her, Manqina tripped her. I had a knife and . . . I stabbed at her about three or four times.” Three of the applicants strongly emphasized emotion as guiding their actions, describing themselves as “excited,” “inspired,” “highly motivated ,” and full of “high spirits.” Easy Nofemela said, “Our emotions led us to throw stones at this white person because our land was taken from us by the white people.” He then blamed a force that was both part of himself and separate: “During that time, my spirit just said I must kill the White.” There was also joy in the mob, more exaltation than debasement , and a sense of accomplishment afterward. Emotion then served to vivify the instructions to take violent action against white people. Ntombeku Peni said, “At the time we were in very high spirits and the 56 > 57 The analysis focuses on a double killing in 1986 on a farm in the township of Mbekweni, just north of Paarl in the Western Cape. In the late 1980s, violent confrontations had broken out sporadically in Mbekweni between members of the Azanian People’s Organization (AZAPO) and individuals affiliated with the ANC, as a result of a feud between the two liberation groups. As in...

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