Family and friends mourn Struggle icon
ABOUT 2 000 mourners paid their final respects to anti-apartheid Struggle icon Reverend Chris Wessels in the Moravian Church in Genadendal at the weekend.
Wessels’ nephew, Johan Abrahams, said he was struck most by the funeral’s simplicity.
“The coffin was made of plain pine wood, with the handles made of hessian, and even the fact that they carried the coffin by hand from the house to the church and graveyard. It’s an old Khoekhoe tradition, as described in the Moravian missionary records.”
In front of the coffin were mourners on horseback leading the procession. “What also struck me was how he had prepared himself for death through his strong Christian beliefs and had made peace with the fact that he would pass on.”
He added that a 40-member brass band playing at the funeral was representative of congregations Wessels had served in various communities, such as Wupperthal in the Cederberg mountains, Salem in Port Elizabeth, Elsies River and Lansdowne.
Wessels’ son Christopher paid a moving tribute to his father and read a poem. He said his father had played a major role in what he was today, a cinematographer.
He also spoke of how his father unexpectedly showed up in Cannes, France, during the film festival to support him, and what that meant to him.
Abrahams said the family was grateful for the support from people after his dad’s death and during his short illness, in which he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three months earlier.
Another relative of Wessels, reverend Chris Nissen said dignitaries included the St George’s Anglican Cathedral dean, Father Michael Weeder, key speaker Professor Barney Pityana and UWC Professor Henry “Jatti” Bredekamp.
Nissen said messages of support came from Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and churches in South Africa, the African continent and futher afield.