CHRISTIAN WITNESS AND THE PLURALITY OF CULTURES

Abstract

In 1982 started my ministry as pastor of a parish of the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (Black) in Mamelodi, a township of about 350,000 inhabitants on the north-eastern boundary of Pretoria. The devastating system of apartheid was then still firmly entrenched, with no indication that it would start crumbling. White people needed a permit from the government authorities to enter any township for any reason, stating the purpose of the visit to the township, the person(s) to be visited and the nature of the discussions. This dehumanizing regulation meant that in practice virtually no person ever entered the As a pastor, according to the law, too had to apply for a permit every time visited my parish. did so once, but found it so humiliating that decided to apply civil disobedience, never to apply for a permit again and to challenge the system by taking whites into the township without any permits. It soon appeared that some people were interested in what was happening in the black from which they were excluded. To the majority of whites, blacks were like shadows moving by in the streets of Pretoria and regarded as mere implements for use in fulfilling certain functions in the white world. This functional view of blacks caused whites to have no interest whatsoever in blacks as persons or in the world in which the blacks were forced to live. It was accepted as a cornerstone of the apartheid society that blacks and whites did not mix. Whites accepted this as a very convenient arrangement and considered it totally unnecessary to visit the township to see where blacks lived and the conditions they lived in. Some whites, however, had an interest in what life was like in a The reasons were mainly fascination about what life was like on the other side of the apartheid wall. For other whites there were religious motives, as they saw the possibility of entering the township as an ideal opportunity to evangelize the black heathens. Many groups thus started to invite me to come and tell them about life in the used the opportunities to reveal to them what the demonic system of apartheid was doing to the blacks, the devastating conditions in the township -- over-crowding, lack of recreational facilities, almost no municipal services, etc. Eventually challenged them to come and see for themselves by visiting families, to have a meal with them to hear what they had to say about life in the The first group of whites challenged with this suggestion were immediately frightened by the idea. One person stood up and said: Smith, am a father of three children. What have heard about townships is that they are deadly dangerous places. They cut people's throats there without any hesitation. As a responsible person and for the sake of my children, am not willing to go into the township. Another stood up and said: I know people love to eat porridge (maize) and morog (a common vegetable). tell you, Dr Smith, simply cannot eat that type of want us to have a meal with a family. It will only be an embarrassment to both them and me if cannot eat their food. Another (a professor) stood up and said: You want us to communicate with blacks. Our cultures and thoughts are so different. What are we going to talk about? We have to accept that we (whites and blacks) belong to different worlds and will not be able to communicate in a meaningful way. A friend who accompanied me asked me if would allow him to respond to the remarks by the whites. His answer to the person with the fear of having his throat cut in the township, was: Throats are being cut in the townships but if read every morning about the many throats being cut in the community by shootings, corruption, family suicides, etc., can assure you it is not that bad in our community. And by the way, if you believe that about blacks, why are you, pretending to be a Christian, not concerned about the throats of fellow Christians, forced by your government to live in such a 'dangerous place'? …