Who are you? I am a middle age white male from the United States. I have never truly felt the tension or effects of racism, I have only heard and read about it. Some may think I’m not qualified to write a blog about this topic and well they might be right.
So why do you want to write a blog about one of the biggest racial issues that occurred in the 20th century? I wanted to write this blog because awareness is something I have a passion for. Understanding the history of a country is a cornerstone to effectively doing ministry there. There are also times God uses unlikely people to accomplish unlikely things, for example Jonah. God chose Jonah to “go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it,” (Jonah 1:2a). Who was Jonah? He was Gods chosen messenger. I believe I am also Gods chosen messenger!
So let’s dive into the topic of Apartheid.
Apartheid literally means separateness. There were over 148 apartheid laws created and enforced by the South African government. “Under apartheid, nonwhite South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the two groups would be limited. By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races, and prohibited sexual relations between black and white South Africans.”
“A series of Land Acts set aside more than 80 percent of the country’s land for the white minority, and “pass laws” required non-whites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas. In order to limit contact between the races, the government established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites, limited the activity of nonwhite labor unions and denied non-white participation in national government. From 1961 to 1994, more than 3.5 million people were forcibly removed from their homes and deposited in the Bantustans, where they were plunged into poverty and hopelessness.”
“The governments goal was not only to separate South Africa’s white minority from its non-white majority, but also to separate non-whites from each other, and to divide black South Africans along tribal lines in order to decrease their political power. In 1976, when thousands of black children in Soweto, a black township outside Johannesburg, protested against the Afrikaans language requirement for black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets.”
The government reported an estimated 200 people were killed but some sources say up to 700 killed in Soweto.
One question you might have would be, where was the church during the 50 years of the Apartheid? They a were too worried about conforming to the government than thinking about WWJD. There are many first hand accounts from black Africans about their experience trying to attend church in South Africa.
Can Themba of Drum magazine began investigating the day to day realities of apartheid. “The Presbyterian Church in Noord Street allowed me in, yet the one in Orange Grove refused me admittance. They explained that the hall was rented from some boys’ club whose policy did not allow Non-whites into the hall. They also said something about the laws of the country.”
Most of you have heard the name Nelson Mandela. He was imprisoned in the early 60’s because he was the public figurehead of the movement to abolish the apartheid. He was released from prison in 1990. For the next three years he worked with South African President F.W. de Klerk to draft a new constitution. The both sides made concessions and reach an agreement in 1993. Both men would later share the Nobel Peace Prize for their effect. Mandela would also go on to be South Africa’s first black president in 1994.
Again, I’m writing this blog for my fellow World Racers. Although some of you may not read this, the ones who do I would encourage to do your own research. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. YouTube has a lot of detailed videos on the apartheid. There might not be anything we can do about the past but that is not a reason to be uninformed. You all had a heavy heart in Cambodia because of the Khmer Rouge. It has also been amazing to see how God has been redeeming Cambodia over the past 40 years! We will see this same redemption in South Africa as well!
Next month my team and I will be in Johannesburg, South Africa for an Awaking conference. After that we will be heading north to Botswana for the rest of February.
-Joe
*information came from history.com
