RADICAL CHRISTIANITY AMONG STUDENTS: THE STORY OF SUCA

Abstract

The brith of the Student Union for Christian Action (SUCA) marks the beginning of an important chapter in the history of the student movement. By the late 1970s South Africa was still suffering the trauma of the after-effects of the 1976 riots. Political groups were regrouping to occupy the space created by the banning of popular organizations in 1977. There was a need to give direction to the massive anger and the quest for action against the brutality of the system. Society was fast becoming polarized. Towards the end of the proceedings of the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA), held in Pretoria in June 1979, the formation of a national union for Christian action was mooted. After much effort, discussion, tension and prayer, SUCA was born in June 1980 a national union for Christians from seventeen universities. To white students it provided a first encounter with black Christians and a better view of Christians from other races. One of them once said: as privileged whites our problem is that we simply do fully know nor understand what is happening in our country. For black students, SUCA 's birth was a dream-come-true and they saw it a vehicle through which to engage and challenge the apartheid system. The bulk of the SUCA constituency at its debut in 1980 were whites from the liberal and Afrikaner universities. SUCA had members from all Christian student groups in the country, namely the Student Christian Movement (SCM), the Student Christian Association (SCA), the Association of Christian Students (ACS) and the Afrikaanse Christen Studentevereniging (ACSV). Most SUCA leaders held national positions in these Christian structures and in the Student Representative Councils (SRCs) of their universities. Since SUCA was meant to be an organization but a movement, little attention was paid to action against building branches. It had members from all the major Christian traditions in the country, but one remarkable feature is that it adopted an evangelical basis of faith at its launching. The greatest problem SUCA faced at the beginning was the prospect of rejection by evangelicals for being too and by activists for not being enough, or for having a definite political line. Tension also existed from the beginning between black and white students based on their understanding of the South African reality and the action required to change it. Until 1982 provision was made for corporate affiliation by student structures. During 1982 SUCA's stand shifted towards practical action and a programme on relocations and squatters was adopted. …