In a nation still struggling with inequality, the Institute for Healing of Memories’ work proves that personal healing is not a private luxury, it is a public and institutional necessity, writes Alphonse Niyodusenga.
In South Africa, a nation where the wounds of history remain woven into the fabric of its institutions, leadership is often viewed through the lens of strategy, governance, and policy. Yet, a more fundamental challenge persists: the unaddressed personal trauma carried by leaders, which silently sabotages efforts toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and systemic change.
The Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM), founded in 1998 in parallel with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), recognised this liability decades ago. For over two decades, IHOM has developed a crucial, often overlooked intervention: creating psychologically safe spaces for leaders to confront past trauma and engage in genuine reconciliation. These are not merely therapeutic sessions; they are capacity-building workshops that address the root causes of systemic exclusion.
The leadership blind spot
IHOM’s work began primarily with leaders who hold the moral and social contract of their communities: interfaith figures, community organisers, military and veterans’ heads, and civil society activists. The core observation was simple, yet profound, those expected to carry the burdens and trauma of their constituencies rarely have the space to process their own.
Fr Michael Lapsley, long-term apartheid activists and founder of IHOM, articulated the strategic risk concisely: “Unresolved trauma does not disappear. It silently shapes our families, communities, politics and economies. If we do not address it, the pain of the past is carried forward.” In a business or government context, this trauma manifests as leadership blind spots, emotional reactivity, unconscious biases, and an unconscious tendency to perpetuate cycles of division and exclusion, the very antithesis of effective DEI.
Healing as a leadership competency
The Institute’s DEI-focused Healing of Memories Workshops and Dialogues unlock critical leadership competencies. By engaging in personal healing, leaders significantly enhance their self-awareness, empathy, and integrity.
The results are tangible. As one human rights leader shared after a workshop, “I am a better person and I feel I am a better leader now… [I] understand how I should handle the people that I am leading.” Another interfaith leader noted: “I never realised that the memories of my past were still haunting me until I was confronted with them during the workshop.” These are not soft skills. They are prerequisites for building inclusive, equitable, and resilient institutional cultures.
While the IHOM continues to drive its core mandate around the healing of memories work, through psychosocial counselling sessions provided to communities across the country, the Institute is also strategically expanding this transformative model to leaders in the government and corporate sectors. This expansion is critical, as these sectors hold the power to shape public policy, market values, and institutional norms.
The reality is corporate sectors and government continue with some leaders who carry unaddressed personal and intergenerational wounds stemming from historical injustices. And when an unhealed leader occupies a position of power, they are at high risk of unknowingly perpetuating systemic division, exclusion, and inequality in organisations. In turn resulting organisational friction, high turnover, low psychological safety, and stalled DEI initiatives—becomes an exorbitant, unnecessary operating cost.
In a nation still struggling with inequality, IHOM’s work proves that personal healing is not a private luxury, it is a public and institutional necessity. When leaders serve as agents of change by modelling healing and reconciliation internally, they create the foundational conditions for social cohesion, a genuine celebration of diversity, inclusion, and lasting organisational transformation.
To support its community healing of memories programmes, the IHOM will be hosting a Fundraising Art Auction & Dinner on 13 November 2025 in Johannesburg. The IHOM Art Auction & Dinner will showcase pieces generously donated by corporates, including MTN Foundation and a headline piece generously commissioned by globally acclaimed GreatJoy Ndlovu.
Other pieces to be showcased at the art auction include works by internationally acclaimed artist Nelson Makamo, Karen Bareuther, Philemon Hlungwani, Ramarutha Malapane, Bongani Makoba, Abe Mathabe, Bongile Mkhize, Flora More, and Simon Mthimkulu; as well as the Soweto Uprising portfolio which features Bongi Bengu, Bongi Mkhize, Flora Mmaphoko More, Vincent Baloyi, Muzi Donga, Charles Nkosi, and Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi.
Alphonse Niyodusenga
