Abstract
This paper investigates the intensification of the scope of migrant theology by forced removals in the 1960s and 1970s in South Africa. Forced removals in South Africa were carried out by the white government, especially in the late 1950s and 1960s, with the support of the white churches (particularly white Afrikaans churches) underpinned by a series of laws which entrenched racial segregation and inequality and which led to millions of black peoples being forced to leave their ancestral land and white cities to live in barren and overcrowded places. The policy of forced removals accompanied by its resultant reprisals led to a mass exodus of many black people going to settle in the neighbouring countries either to join the arms struggle or further their studies abroad. Those who remained in the country were forced to resist the policy either through violent protest or peaceful resistance. The policy led to black people developing theologies of survival in the country of their birth since they were exposed to a condition of poverty, exploitation and alienation from their cultural heritage, while ensuring exclusive privileges to whites in the country. The paper seeks to investigate how the migrants developed a theology of resistance amidst their dislocation and the heavy-handedness of the government.
Highlights
This paper investigates the intensification of the scope of migrant theology by forced removals in the 1960s and 1970s in South Africa
From the investigations reported in their book, Platzky and Walker (1984:1) tell us that from 1960 to 1982 about 3.5 million South Africans were forcibly removed from their homes and land and dumped in barren and uninhabitable areas
Millions of other black people affected by the same policy which was tantamount to reducing them to non-citizens of South Africa, fled the country
Summary
According to Wheaton (2008:1) this entails two key components: social – ‘living together in communities or organised groups’ and justice – ‘the upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honour, standards, or law. It is only with transformed hearts that people can extend God’s justice to the poor, orphans and widows, and partiality to all These concerns were exhibited in the lives of those who resisted the evil of apartheid and embraced a theology of life that would eventually emancipate them. With the white government wanting to reverse the core history of South Africa by arresting black people’s movements from the country side to towns and cities, and the growing mobilisation of the black masses against oppressive laws, an irreversible pressure was mounting on black people to deepen the spirit of resistance (Morris 2011:44-45). Between 1946 and 1962 peasants resistance was provoked in Witieshoek, (Freestate), Marico and Sekhukhuneland (former Transvaal), Zululand (Natal), The Transkei (Eastern Cape) and many parts of rural South Africa (Mbeki 1964)
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