The image of a loving God drew many faith-based militants into the ranks of liberation movements the world over, writes Michael Weeder.
Cape Town - Amin Cajee’s memoir, Fordsburg Fighter, traces his entry as a 19-year-old into the ranks of MK.
He lays bare the early signs of the chauvinistic tribalism, racism and factionalism which today has become common currency as corrupt cabals determine a luxurious lifestyle for themselves and their chosen few.
Dystopia, on the other hand, is the lived reality of the majority of South Africans.
Francis Wilson, a cathedral parishioner, shared memories of the Fourth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches, 1968, in Uppsala, Sweden.
“Joe Matthews was there as an observer for the ANC which had been invited by the WCC,” recalls Wilson. “I am there as a youth (it was a long time ago) rep of the Anglican Church, sent by Archbishop Robert Selby Taylor.”
The friendship between Matthews and Wilson dated back to their childhood days: “Our families knew each other though I never knew Joe all that well as he must have been at least 7, maybe 10, years older. At this stage he was still a staunch member of the SACP and well known for that fact.”
Late one night, in Wilson’s hotel room imbibing whisky, their conversation ranged over the role of the church, Christianity, etc.
“I remember him very clearly saying to me, over his glass: You know, Francis, there is one thing that communism does not understand and that is sin.’”
In the context “understand” meant “allow for”.
Out of Latin America a colossus of hope would stride forth from among the poor and those who made common cause with their struggles. It would speak to aspects of the dilemma identified by Matthews.
Many of the young militants who were part of the Sandinista-led revolution which freed Nicaragua from the Somoza dynasty in July 1979 grappled with the human condition from the perspective of faith and religious belief. Young Catholics from middle and upper class sectors of Nicaraguan society were converted by “a new Pentecost”, liberation theology. Coined by the Peruvian priest Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, the phrase interpreted Christian faith “out of the experience of the poor”. It was an attempt, wrote Gutiérrez, “to read the Bible and key Christian doctrines with the eyes of the poor”.
The image of a loving God, biased towards the suffering, the exploited and the poor of society, drew many faith-based militants into the ranks of liberation movements the world over. The priests and lay evangelists drank deep from the spiritual wells of the church. They incorporated into their religious teaching the insights of ascetics such as Evagrius Ponticus, a fourth-century theologian, who taught that “sin is forgetfulness of God’s goodness”.
This theological distilling of the social teachings of the Catholic Church and a grassroots approach to organising against injustice had its ideological roots in church-based movements such as The Young Christian Workers (YCW).
Cape Town’s graduates from the YCW school of faith-based activism included anti-apartheid activists Daphne King and Trevor Manuel. The latter had joined YCW while working on a building site in the city in the early 1970s.
Events would take such a rapid turn in Manuel’s life that he found himself over Christmas of 1979 walking along a dusty road of a small town outside Gaborone. He had one purpose in mind: “I was active through the 1970s but I was still working in construction. I needed to go and join MK.”
Contact was made and en route a fellow on a bicycle came by and asked: “Is djy my ma se kind?” (Are you my mother’s child?) He concurred and was led into the house “and there was Uncle Reg September and Shahied Raji”.
Manuel returned the next day. It was early morning and Reg asked: “I’m going to make some breakfast. Can I boil you an egg?”
He observed how, “Reg takes a tablespoon and slowly lowers the egg into the water. He is doing this in a very gentle kind of way. There is turmoil inside my head. This man is a revolutionary but he is so gentle in doing it”.
* The Very Rev Michael Weeder is the Dean of St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Weekend Argus