Hate-free towards abductors after 6 years
STEPHEN McGowan, the South African man held captive for almost six years in Mali, said he doesn’t harbour hatred for the al-Qaeda militants who detained him in west Africa.
“Six years is a long time, a lot has changed. I don’t want to harbour resentment. To forgive or forget, I don’t know if it’s more about forgetting and just putting it behind me and moving than actually forgiving,” McGowan said while addressing journalists at the Gift of the Givers offices in Johannesburg.
“I can be honest, I am angry about my mother (who died). I am angry that I was not released prior to it (the death). They were aware that my mother was sick. They were aware of it. To miss my mother by about two months, I’m angry about that. But this must go, I must let go of this.”
Flanked by his wife, Catherine McGowan, and his father, Malcolm McGowan, Stephen said he would forgive the terror group.
“I will forgive. I will move on. You get one life, so I don’t want to carry burdens which hold me back. So, it’s okay. It’s alright. It’s going be,” he said.
McGowan was released on July 25, and reunited with his family.
Beverly McGowan died in May after numerous appeals for her son’s release. Stephen was travelling through Mali on a trans-Africa journey when he and two other tourists were abducted by gunmen from a restaurant in Timbuktu. The attackers shot and killed a fourth tourist, a German, when he refused to climb into their truck.