United We Stand

IT SEEMS AS though after liberation, the voice of conscience left the South African public sphere and retired to a quiet church life, so that the current generation barely knows that the church ever influenced South African political and public affairs.

On the day of Nelson Mandela’s inauguration, Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously announced that he was returning to do the “real” business of the church by leaving politics to qualified politicians. Years later, during the era of President Jacob Zuma, Tutu often lamented about the undesirable state of the country under the current leaders. He must have forgotten that by leaving politics to politicians in 1994, he too played a role in leading the nation to this position he now regrets.

Kairos South Africa recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Church leaders from as far as Norway, the U.S., and Palestine all remembered how the 1985 Kairos document taught the worldwide church a hopeful language to address injustice. Yet now the majority of young people in South Africa do not know anything about this heroic church history.

South African anti-apartheid leader Allan Boesak referred to the Kairos movement as a “dangerous memory.” It does indeed have the potential to be a dangerous memory—one that should be remembered by every one of the Christians who make up 81 percent of the South African population. Unfortunately, it is a memory held by only a select older minority.

How can this change? This summer several members of the new generation of South African Christian leaders traveled to the U.S. to study how to be effective Christian agents of social justice. At the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina, I listened to Bree Newsome explain that it was her faith in God that gave her the courage to pull down the Confederate flag at the South Carolina capitol after the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. “You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today!” she said.

Miles Giljam, Gaynore Cele, and Msizi Cele, some of South Africa’s emerging Christian leaders, participated in the Sojourners Leadership Summit in June and met with Ferguson-based organizers of Black Lives Matter.

For South Africans, this summer’s events in the U.S.—Charleston, the Confederate flag, the death of Sandra Bland in a Texas jail, and far too many lost black lives that are added to the list of intolerable racist acts and police brutality—are haunting reminders of our own apartheid South Africa.

Young people must stand together, even across continents, to defeat the giants of our generation. In a global world, our fight for justice is, in truth, a fight for humanity. We fight for the unjust person to change just as much as we fight for the unjustly treated to have their justice.

As young South African leaders and members of Freedom Mantle, we are called to be like the biblical hero Joshua, since Mandela was like Moses to us. Moses led the people to freedom. Joshua led the people into the promised land. The important work of the anti-apartheid generation got us out of slavery but did not lead us to the promised land. We now pick up Joshua’s mantle.

Among the many challenges remaining in our country is the looming giant of corruption, which must be tackled before all the rest. Unite Against Corruption, a civil society effort led by churches and unions is bringing thousands of South Africans into the streets to call the nation to repentance and shine a light on corrupt government practices. The task before us is formidable. But we are confident that if we are faithful, just, and persistent—like Joshua—God will lead us to our inheritance.