Cape Town – The remains of Michael Balie, one of the first formally trained South African teachers at the Genadendal Training College in Genadendal, have been taken from the Genadendal Mission Museum and handed over to the community for a dignified and respectful burial.
Provincial Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC Anroux Marais performed the symbolic handover of Balie’s remains on Monday, with the involvement of interested community groups, such as the Board of Trustees of Genadendal Mission Museum, museum manager and great grandson of Balie, Dr Isaac Balie, the South African Heritage Resources Agency, and the Moravian Church of South Africa.
Marais said this was part of their Human Remains Reburial Programme that aims to facilitate a series of reburials of human remains from museums affiliated to the department, as their current departmental Guidelines for the Management and Reinternment of Human Remains and Associated Archaeological Remains emphasised that museums were not appropriate institutions to hold human remains.
The handover was followed by a dignified burial ceremony at the Genadendal Mission Museum conducted by Balie and traditional stakeholders, with a performance by the Genadendal Brass Band as the human remains of the deceased were laid to rest in front of the Herrnhut House.
Balie said the event highlighted the fact that Genadendal had the first teacher training college in South Africa, which was never formally acknowledged in the general history of South Africa, and could be found in his book “Genadendal: A Long Walk Through the History of the First Mission Station in South Africa”.
“This was a wonderful opportunity for Genadendal to make South Africans aware through the reburial ceremony, who believe that the first formally trained teachers came from elsewhere, actually came from Genadendal. Now their eyes were opened that Michael Balie and his 10 colleagues were the first South Africans (despite skin colour) who had been formally trained as teachers in South Africa,” said Balie.
Balie said the handover and reburial event also included the unveiling of a memorial stone in front of the main Museum, of all the pioneer teachers in South Africa, who were trained in 1838 at the Genadendal Teachers Training College.
