Stellenbosch not Business as Usual

Stellenbosch could never be business as usual
Stellenbosch is hosting an impressive conference these days – Joint Conference of Academic Societies in the Fields of Religion and Theology, 22 – 26 June. We are perhaps five hundred people or more and no less than 14 such societies have decided to hold this joint conference. Such an event may never have happened before in South Africa, and certainly not in Stellenbosch. At the same time the faculty of theology at this university is this year celebrating 150 years’ of existence.

But there was something amiss. In the introductory speeches yesterday I only heard some words about that the past 150 years had been an up-march towards the present event. There are many things to celebrate; the fact that one third to half of the conference participants now are blacks; the fact that a leading theme in the conference is African spirituality;

What was not said is that only 20 years ago a black student was hardly welcome to this faculty; that some of the most prominent theology professors until recently openly defended apartheid, a policy and a system that has been labelled ‘a crime against humanity’; that some of the previous professors (1930s and 40s) were part in the very formulation of this system (among others the so-called mission policy); in other words, that during most of those 150 years this faculty only had time and resources for white students; that one major reason why this theological school was established in Stellenbosch was that students sent to Amsterdam came back with too liberal views, theologically as well as politically.

What has happened since 1989 there about is a wonderful transformation; the faculty also serves quite a number of students from other African countries as well.
So why lament about past times? Why not see to the present and be glad in it? My response is this: I don’t mean that people in Stellenbosch must dwell on the past as such; what had been proper, yes more than proper, would have been to acknowledge this apartheid past openly in front of all the wonderful people who have come, so as to be able to leave this past behind in an open and truthful way. I would have appreciated that.

I am clearly not a student of Stellenbosch, so who am I to come and criticize others? Am I not judgemental? Others will have to answer that question but my argument goes something like this.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing that has happened in history was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa 1996-98. Here was a possibility to come forward and acknowledge complicity, that is to say, simply come forward and say, “I was part of racist practices”, or, “I benefited from apartheid in this or that way”….
The TRC was completely open and media were there, all the time. It would have been proper if an institution like Stellenbosch Faculty of Theology would have come forward in a TRC hearing.

To our disappointment, many churches did also not come forward, as if they had nothing to acknowledge or confess. This is an almost shameful situation bearing in mind what the Christian faith is all about.

My own church the Church of Sweden has unfortunately not come very much further than Stellenbosch on this issue. We could at least have learnt from Berliner Missionswerk. Their mission secretary Revd Reinhardt Schultz, who sadly enough died far too early, was the only one representing a Lutheran mission in South Africa who came forward to acknowledge guilt and complicity in apartheid.

We all know that the missions all had problems with standing up against the ideology of apartheid which also claimed to be so Christian. We all have stories to tell. The truth is that all mission societies at one point or another had missionaries who in their daily lives practised apartheid and were not disciplined for that. The truth is that in all mission societies there were missionaries who at some point practised segregation – for example, whites were welcome through the front door, but blacks only through the back door, and we are here talking about Christians visiting each other!

I have experienced one such example of racial discrimination at the hands of an old German missionary (I hope you heard me, I just tried to say that others, even Swedes were not any better). We were two missionaries and two blacks evangelists from Botswana who had lunch at this old missionary’s house. After lunch we were all a bit dozy and the old man then said: you and you can take a nap in our guest rooms, but you (from Botswana) can sleep in the car. A nap was now unthinkable……..

Reinhard Schultz tried to make an honest description of his mission’s involvement in South Africa and how it had made use of and benefited from apartheid at the expense of the very people they had come to serve. Unfortunately the church, ELCSA, was not happy with this written memorandum from Berlin. But they really had a case as they felt that it would have been better with a mutual consultation, face to face so to speak, a consultation that could have ended in reconciliation and embrace in an act of worship.

It is clear that all the missions involved with our Lutheran church had good reason to come forward and do at least what Berlin had done. Likewise taking into account what the church in South Africa had expressed the right thing would have been to come together in consultation where all these things of the past could have been dealt with once and for all. This could have been one part of the historically decisive events that were TRC; but nothing happened and my own church did nothing, as if we are beyond reproach. I think it is shameful that we could not come forward in an honest way, so as to have closure and made it possible to make a new beginning.

I am giving this background just to show that Stellenbosch seemingly is in good company. But I insist, this faculty of Theology, called die Kweekskool (a place where you make people grow), with such a past with racism as well as with high achievements academically, cannot run away from its past just like that. This past will come back and haunt you.

So in order to get peace and harmony, Stellenbosch Kweekskool, come on: be bold and acknowledge all these wrongs that have taken place and we will all come and celebrate in a real way!

Amandla!, someone shouted in the crowd last night. This liberative exclamation came from old professor Nico Smith at the opening function; he was the one who left Stellenbosch in protest in 1982, after himself having been heavily complicit in the system and had then moved into the black township of Tembisa, north of Pretoria as parish pastor (dominee).

The paper I am going to present on Thursday does not make things easier for me. The title of the paper is: ‘The theological rationale in Afrikaner Nationalism and Black Consciousness. A close reading of F J M Potgieter and Steve Biko’. It is partly about ‘the most apartheid friendly professor ever’, F J M Potgieter. At this moment I am very hesitant and a bit apprehensive. Will the presentation be completely ignored or will I be heard?