Multiculturalism and the Church in South Africa 7.0. Introduction
7.13. The White Churches in Response to the 'Struggle' of the Apartheid System
Elphick and Davenport (1997) say that, the Dutch Reformed churches supported segregation. The English-speaking churches, on the other hand, failed to offer a prophetic, alternative voice: they condemned apartheid at annual conferences and in pastoral letters, but, in practice these churches were part of the racially oppressive system. Long-established custom, reinforced by the Urban Areas Act of 1923 and the Group Areas Act of 1950, led to be segregated parishes, church schools, and hospitals. In 1957 the Roman Catholic bishops told their flock that it was 'a blasphemy to attribute to God the sins against charity and justice which are the necessary accompaniment of apartheid.' ( Elphiock and Davenporrt 1997: 386).
It was a ringing declaration, but not until 1979 were Catholic seminaries integrated, and then only after the bishops (overwhelmingly white) were confronted by black seminarians and priests, who were a small minority within the clergy of a church whose membership was overwhelmingly (80 per cent) black.
Some of the outstanding individuals challenged the pervasive passivity. Father Trevor Huddleston of the Anglican Community of the Resurrection joined the Defiance Campaign, and stood in the forefront of resistance to the destruction of the African townships of Sophiatown under the Group Areas Acts. He went on to play a principal role in the Congress of the People, which, in 1955, produced the Freedom Charter. In consequence, he was recalled to England the next year by his order.
A second Anglican priest, Michale Scott, was imprisoned in 1946 for joining Indian passive resistors in Durban in their protest against the Smuts government's Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Acts; and, soon thereafter, he was declared
a prohibited immigrant. Scott continued to fight in exile against apartheid and South Africa's occupation OD South West Africa. The Rev. Arthur Blaxall, the Anglican General Secretary of the Christian Council, developed a support network for political detainees during the Treason Trial of the late 1950s. the Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg Ambrose Reeves, visited the wounded after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, took affidavits from witnesses, and published his expose', Shooting at Sharpeville.
Both Blaxall and Reeves were deported. Although more cautious than these personalities and focussed on ecclesiastical concerns, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Geoffrey Clayton, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Durban, Denis Hurley, in 1957 led ecumenical opposition to a bid designed to enable the Minister of the Interior to bar Africans from attending churches in white areas.
Elphick and Davenport speak of the defiance campaign:
The white led denominations themselves in contrast to such courageous individuals, were out of touch with ant-apartheid movements. Members of the ecclesiastical hierachy were conspicuously absent from the non-violent Defiance Campaign of the 1950s. In the words of Helen Joseph , 'the Church turned its back on the ANC , the ANC never turned its back on the Church'.
She described going into homes during the Defiance Campaign, where they would fmd '15 or 20 people bunched in the house waiting for us. And we started with prayer' (Elphick and Davenport 1997: 386).
7.14.The Un-banning
of the
ANC and the Releaseof Nelson
MandelaBy the 1980s colour- bar had been dismantled in certain public places, and in 1979, African trade unions had been recognised in law. Yet the principal foundations of the apartheid remained firmly in place. Comparable struggles were underway within a number of South African denominations. The South African Council of Churches, now under black leadership, functioned as an ecumenical vanguard for prophetic Christianity.
Some the prominent people involved with the struggle against apartheid were, Rev.
Frank Chikane, Rev. Allan Boesak, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Walter Sisulu , Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Beyers Naude', to name a few.
By 1989, most the political prisoners were released, and many returned home to South Africa from their exiles. In the same year F. W. de Klerk, was installed as President, succeeding P.W. Botha. In February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years.
Looking back now at the emergence of a prophetic Christian church voice in South Africa, we can discern its early articulation in African politics, particularly after the formation of the ANC in 1912.
Two issues may be of vital importance for South Africa's future comment Elphick and Davenport (1997). The fIrst is whether prophetic witness will renew its strength and contribute to sustaining the country's predominantly black political culture if racial tolerance and non-racial ideals- in a time when whites experience a loss of power and the redress of black communities' grievances about inequality and economic exploitation are slow in coming. The second and related issue is whether the prophetic church, having experienced the compromises of a relatively peaceful political transition, will be able to articulate a theology critical of the continuing structural injustices( social sin) of South African society. Whites will be inclined to cling to their economic privilege, while assertive, increasingly powerful black elites will tend to defend their military, police, the professions, and trade unions.
Who will further the vision of a more just society? Who will empower the poor?In the words of Jean-Marc Ela, who drew upon his experiences among the poverty- stricken Kirdis of north Cameroon: 'How to speak about God in the living conditions of the poor in African societies tom apart many forms of neo-colonial violence, is the question which should mobilise African churches.'(Elphick and Davenport 1997:396-399).
Other challenges within multiculturalism is economic exploitation, poverty, AIDS, breakdown of family values due to complex social problems, the culture of substance abuse and a high level of crime and violence.
7.15. Solution and Evaluation