It’s time for the clergy to start making their voice heard again
Mandela may be dead, but we need his spirituality to live on
IMAGINE the world a hundred years ago. Nations were still at war in what was World War I, a carnage that started in July 1914 and ended in November 1918. Colonialism was still alive, and white political power was evident in most of the world. So was the subjugation of people who were not white.
This country was known as the Union of South Africa, which was formed in 1910 in the aftermath of the Second Anglo Boer or South African War, which was fought between the British the two Boer republics.
The agreements reached to form the Union made provision for four provinces. Each of these provinces effectively gave black people a status equal to nothing. For them it was a time of despair, poverty, slavery, exploitation and a dark future. Despite this, black South Africans fought for king and country in the First World War and suffered casualties.
In 1917 the SS Mendi went down near the Isle of Wight in one of the biggest maritime disasters of World War I. A total of 600 men, the majority of them black, drowned. At least 200 were rescued. The next year, in Palestine, the Cape Corps defeated a Turkish force in the battle of Square Hill. These sacrifices were not enough to earn political rights for black people.
Into these times of white hegemony was born in 1918 in Transkei a boy who was destined to play a decisive role in changing the political face of South Africa, as well as achieve his ambition of achieving freedom in his lifetime. Who was this boy? As you all know, he would have turned 100 on July 18. He was Rolihlahla Mandela.
Much has been written about his leadership, political acumen, imprisonment, marriage to the ANC and marriages to Winnie Mandela, Graça Machel and Evelyn Mase. If these books that quite rightfully lavish praise on Mandela were to be believed, his life was anchored in politics and politics only. But is that true? In his 27 years as a political prisoner, Mandela could not defend himself. He could not counter the propaganda churned out by the apartheid government that he was a communist, terrorist, atheist or the devil himself.
Under these conditions it was not surprising that those defending Mandela were holding the position that the South African political situation could only be resolved if the government negotiated with a free Mandela.
In the battle between the regime and ANC of creating and feeding a particular narrative of Mandela, the truth about his spirituality somehow disappeared. After his release from prison in 1990, Mandela mostly also kept quiet in public about his beliefs.
But what did he believe in? What kept him going when he was cut off from his wife, children, family, friends and the African mainland? What made him such a strong advocate of reconciliation after his release? What made him take Holy Communion as a prisoner and also as a free man? Indeed what made him insist that his funeral ceremony should be conducted in the traditional Methodist way?
It was his unshakable Christian faith and his association with the Methodist Church that his mother, Fanny, was the first to nurture. In The Spiritual Mandela I wrote about an interview that Mandela had with reporters from the conservative American newspaper The Washington Times. The South African government allowed them to interview him in Pollsmoor Prison. It was clear later that there was an agenda for allowing the interview. It was to portray him in a negative light. Mandela said in the interview that he was not a communist. But they reported that he was.
Two priests, one a Methodist, Dudley Moore, and the other an Anglican, Harry Wiggett, publicly took up the cudgels on his behalf. They informed South Africans of the political prisoner who they had served Holy Communion at Pollsmoor.
Allow me to share my views about part of the duties of the clergy in the country we live in. I believe you made a mistake when you silenced yourselves and took away an important moral voice when you withdrew from public life. I’m happy that you’ve found your voice again. Please don’t fall silent again. You’ve seen what politicians get up to when the clergy go quiet.
We need more examples of how you refuse to accept that the government’s way is the correct way. Mandela was involved. But it was a dead Mandela, who showed that even in death he could inspire. Childishly the governing party had tried to humiliate and muzzle Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu by not allowing him to officially be a part of the funeral proceedings. At one stage the Archbishop publicly declared he would not attend the funeral of his friend.
When sanity prevailed and he attended the occasion, it was the Reverend Vido Nyobole who made a place for him among the collection of religious leaders. That was leadership. We need more of this. We need you to be part of the debate on the society that we want. I believe you and other religious leaders would be failing in your mandate if you do not speak up on behalf of millions of South Africans who still find themselves trapped in poverty, hunger and informal settlements, and staring at a bleak future a 100 years after Mandela was born.
Have we exchanged white rulers for looters who happen to be black? This is not right. I am also convinced you need to embrace reconciliation between different groups because racism is an evil force that can destroy the country that Mandela and others dreamt of. We need your voice to be heard by those in power. You did it in an undemocratic era. Do it again.
You need to embrace reconciliation between different groups because racism can destroy the country that Mandela and others dreamt of
Cruywagen is the author of The Spiritual Mandela as well as Brothers in War and Peace. This is a lecture he delivered at the Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary in Pietermaritzburg on Friday.