{"id":13332,"date":"2017-06-09T15:23:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T22:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=13332"},"modified":"2017-06-10T06:18:47","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T13:18:47","slug":"south-africa-and-apartheid-personal-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/south-africa-and-apartheid-personal-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa and Apartheid: Personal Reflections\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This September I will travel to Cape Town, South Africa for the second of three \u201con location\u201d intensives with Portland Seminary.\u00a0 In preparation for this, I have been asked to read the book The Rise and Fall of Apartheid<\/em><\/strong> by David Welsh.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

This book is highly detailed, as it should be.\u00a0 The historical foundations for Apartheid (the radical segregation and dehumanization of the black majority populace), the many phases of Apartheid from 1948-1994, the resistance to Apartheid, and the details of the negotiations leading up to the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as president are exhaustively explained.<\/p>\n

As I poured through this book, I reflected on the final days of Apartheid, which happened during my lifetime.\u00a0 Here are four unique thoughts that I had as I read through this book.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE POWER OF POPULAR CULTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in small town Tennessee, I knew virtually nothing of South Africa. That changed during my freshman year at Belmont College in 1985.\u00a0 I was a Music Business major and frequently watched MTV.\u00a0 One video that they played on heavy rotation was \u201cSun City\u201d by Artists Against Apartheid.<\/em>\u00a0 This song, written by Steven Van Zandt (the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen) and its \u201cWe are the World\u201d style video was my first exposure to word \u201cApartheid.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1987, I went to see the band U2 during their successful \u201cJoshua Tree Tour.\u201d \u00a0While playing the song \u201cSilver and Gold,\u201d Bono made an appeal for the end of Apartheid and called upon the world to listen to the ideas of Bishop Desmond Tutu.<\/p>\n

In 1998 I was serving as a \u201csemester missionary\u201d in Ipswich, England. \u00a0We took the young adults from our little church to the \u201cGreenbelt Festival,\u201d a sort of Christian Woodstock on a large farm in central England.\u00a0 During one of the many main stage concerts, there was a musical presentation of Christian artists that made the case for the release of Nelson Mandela.\u00a0 I still remember the sound of tens of thousands of young Christians from all over Europe chanting together \u201cFREEEEEEEEEEEEEE\u2026. Nelson Mandela.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, the most significant memories that I have in regard to Apartheid did not come from the press.\u00a0 Rather, this awareness of Apartheid came from popular culture.\u00a0 The Rise and Fall of Apartheid<\/em> <\/strong>repeatedly addresses the importance of world pressure on the South African government to do away with Apartheid.\u00a0 I saw that firsthand via MTV, U2, and the Greenbelt Festival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/TlMdYpnVOGQ<\/p>\n

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THEOLOGY AFFECTS POLITICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most fascinating chapter in Welsh\u2019s book was entitled \u201cFissures and Fractures in Afrikaner Nationalism.\u201d\u00a0 As the book earlier points out, South Africa was settled by the Dutch in the late 1600s.\u00a0 Of these, many were Protestant Huguenots fleeing religious persecution.\u00a0 Their extreme brand of Calvinism was combined with a view that white Protestants were God\u2019s \u201cchosen people.\u201d\u00a0 When it became economically expedient to suppress the large numbers of Black Africans migrating to South Africa in the 20th<\/sup> century, their theology gave them a foundation to do this guilt-free.<\/p>\n

The problem came as Anglicans, including Desmond Tutu, embraced Liberation Theology.\u00a0 These beliefs, formed in South and Central America, hold the church responsible for influencing governments for the good of the people.\u00a0 In South Africa in the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a conflict between the two theologies.<\/p>\n

The book also discusses the relationship between theology and Nationalism. \u00a0Welsh quotes Afrikaner Professor C N Van Der Merwe who wrote:<\/p>\n

As long as the Afrikaner was the underdog, Christianity and nationalism could to some extent be reconciled, because Christian morality demands charity toward those in need, and at this stage the Afrikaners found themselves to be in need.\u00a0 But, later on, when the Afrikaner got what he wanted\u2026then the tension between Christianity and nationalism grew and became almost unbearable. \u00a0(<\/em>Welsh p. 176)<\/p>\n

Clearly, when a nation embraces a certain theology, it can have a profound impact on that nation\u2019s future.<\/p>\n