“I
became politically aware when growing up as a young boy in Clairwood. I began to ask questions about the poor conditions of the people. And later this awareness gained momentum when I came under the influence of Black Consciousness, while studying to be a priest at the Federal Theological College in Alice in the Eastern Cape.”
Bishop Emeritus Rubin Phillip, who retired just over a year ago as head of the Anglican Church in KZN at the age of 69, has been one of the activists and progressive leaders, who involved himself fully in the struggles for a free, non-racial and democratic society from an early age.
Born into a working class, Telugu-speaking family in the historical and close-knit community of Clairwood, south of Durban, in March 1948, Phillip started, at a young age, to question the desperate conditions under which his parents and other families had to survive at that time.
His grandparents came to the then Natal Colony as indentured labourers from a little village in the then area of the Madras Presidency.
The Madras Presidency at that time, in the 1860s, comprised districts where the people spoke Tamil and Telugu.
After independence in 1947, the Telugu-speaking people became part of the state of Andhra Pradesh.
“My father was a qualified chef and he gave that up and started his own little general hardware business.
“But that was not a success and it was during that period, as a teenager, I thought about our own situation and why we were struggling so much.
“That got me to ask a number of questions about apartheid, about Indian people in the particular area where we were living.
“I began to ask why do they have to suffer so much and why they were being denied access to things that white people in particular were receiving,” Phillip said in a recent interview.
His political awareness became clearer when, in 1969, at the age of 20, he travelled to the town of Alice in the Eastern Cape to study to become a priest at the Federal Theological College.
It was near the Fort Hare University.
“Here, I started to engage people, mainly Africans. For the first time I was living with people of all races. I was able to hear their stories first hand, the levels of their own suffering, pain and hardship.
“Then I started to ask the question, what is the relationship between faith, particularly Christianity, and the suffering of black people, including myself.
“And why was it that there were white Christians and black Christians and yet white Christians lived a very advantaged life, whereas the rest of the people were oppressed through policies created by white Christian people, English and Afrikaners. There was a real contradiction there.
“We would spend hours and hours at the seminary discussing these questions. They were very heated discussions. Then Steve Biko came into our campus and a branch of SASO (South African Student Organisation) was formed. I became its first chairperson.
“By being involved and discussing issues, I realised that SASO was going to become a very important part of my life. SASO was answering questions for which I did not have answers before.
“At that time black theology and black power, as it was called in the United States, started to have its influence on black South Africans, especially people like us, who were very radical about the state of things in the country at that time.”
Phillip had a calling to enter the ministry but never, for one moment, thought that studying at the seminary would change his life forever.
After he returned home to Durban at the end of 1971, he was appointed a minister at an Anglican Church in Wentworth.
Here, because of the proximity to the Alan Taylor residential quarters for black medical students, he re-established contact with Biko and also came into contact with people of the calibre of Barney Pityana, Dr Mamphele Ramphele, Harry Ngengkulu, Ben Khoapa, Strini Moodley and Stanley Ngwasa.
His involvement in Black Consciousness was further strengthened when he was elected vice-president in charge of International Affairs for SASO.
“After my ordination, I continued to be involved in Black Consciousness movement. I was elected vice-president of the organisation and became involved in matters relating to international affairs.
“But furthermore, I was involved in what we called Black Theology Project. Again, it was an attempt to relate religion to political and social transformation.”
While he continued his work to conscientise the people, the apartheid regime at the same time had other plans for him.
When he returned from an overseas trip in 1973, the members of the dreaded security police at that time detained him at the then Jan Smuts International Airport (now Oliver Tambo International) in Johannesburg.
“When I arrived at the airport, my name was called out and I went to this room where I was beaten up by the security police.
“I was then told by the security police that if I didn’t stop my activities, they would get rid of my family. A few days later, I was served with a fiveyear banning order.”
Although his banning and restriction order was lifted in 1976, repression was still at its height in the wake of the Soweto uprisings in June of that year and the countrywide student boycotts that followed. Thousands of people were detained around the country, many died mysteriously and affected families were left destitute.
Philip entered the fray and with the co-operation of several other leaders established the Dependents Conference to assist affected families.
He also initiated and became actively involved in the Natal Crisis Fund that was set up to bring relief to the thousands of people who were caught up in the political violence that gripped KZN in the 1980s.
He continued with his socioeconomic relief work through the Diakonia Council of Churches and numerous other organisations.
He had been involved with Diakonia for more than 30 years since the early 1970s and served as its chairperson for more than a decade.
During his term at Diakonia, he worked with progressive church leaders of the calibre of Catholic Archbishop Denis Hurley, Manas Buthelezi of the Lutheran Church and Dr Norman Hudson of the Methodist Church.
In addition to Diakonia, he worked and led a number of socially-active organisations to promote the human rights of the people.
PART 2 TO FOLLOW