As we walked into the small air conditioned office, she greeted each of us with a big hug as if she had known us for years. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I heard about the woman they call Mamma Africa, but what I got was a petite older woman with auburn hair, sparkly sandals, and a big smile. Despite her size, strength radiated from her person. This woman exuded kindness, but she was tough. As she spoke, one thought often ran into another and anything could turn into a story. Even if you couldn’t keep up with her pace of conversation, you could feel the wisdom behind her words.
Our team had come to meet Willa and to learn about her ministry in an all-black community of Durban, known as Chesterville. Willa received her affectionate nickname, Mamma Africa, from the people of Chesterville after she began working with them in the 1980s. Founded about 40 years prior to that time, South Africa was still under apartheide, and this community was heavily oppressed. Mamma Africa’s involvement came after her pastor began to preach to their congregation on equality through the eyes of Christ. Colossians 3:11 says, “In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free; but Christ is all and in all.” (HCSB) All of this pointed to the fact that in Christ there is not black and white. While some people left the church over this, Mamma Africa hopped into her car and went for a drive through Chesterville. “I don’t know what people though the love of God was really,” she says, “[But] I felt born again, again.”
Around 30 years later and her drive through Chesterville has turned into a full time ministry to the people of the community, addressing not only spiritual matters, but also unemployment, education, national identity, and crime. As we drove the streets of Chesterville, the stories poured out. There were the uplifting stories like how they have recenetly gotten the unemployment rate down from 75% to 45% by helping men get local construction jobs. And when they took some children to the ocean, “The sea is what, 10k away? They had never seen the sea before. They went mad!” But there were also the stories that bespoke the dark past of this area.
In 1991 about 1000 women in the Chesterville community banded together and stoned six men who had brutally raped and murdered a young girl as she was walking home from Bible study. “The women had had enough. Even women from our church participated in the stoning. We tried to convince them that two wrongs don’t make a right, but…That week was the first and last time I smelled blood everyday I came.” As Mamma Africa recalled the horrific day, our team wandered onto the community soccer field where the stoning had taken place just 23 years before. We each began to pray: to thank God that this mass violence was no longer happening and to pray that He would continue to redeem and renew the community.
The most recent effort of the outreach ministry is to plant a church within the community. They have the property and are going to break ground soon. As we pulled over to check out the land, Mamma Willa informed us of the special way they were preparing. “We buried Bibles on the soil of the land. We’ve actually buried the Word of God here. And stones that say faith, hope, and love.” What a fitting foundation.
Sometimes you meet people whose passion and commitment are so powerful that just being around them makes you feel more alive. Mamma Africa is one of those people. Before parting she took time to encourage us and pray over our team. Her words, her wisdom, the love of God that pours out of her….meeting her was honestly a gift from God. I don’t know if I will ever have more involvement with Chesterville outside of prayer, but seeing all that God has done through Mamma Africa reminded me why I came on the World Race. Our lives are meant to bring glory to God by serving “the least of these.” Just a few days later we left South Africa for Thailand, and I had a renewed sense of purpose thanks to one woman who 30 years ago decided to defy public opinion, get in her car, and obey God.
