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The Evolution of Liberation Theology in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Peter Walshe
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Extract

Before examining more recent developments, a historical perspective is helpful in coming to understand the emergence and evolution of liberation theology in South Africa. This perspective establishes the contrasts between the passivity of the churches - their flaccid social and political witness - during the first six decades of this century and what followed after the shootings at Sharpeville in 1960.

By the late 19th century, the white Dutch Reformed Churches (DRC) were intimately associated with the rise of Afrikaner nationalism and provided the initial institutional structure around which the volk gathered. As the 20th century unfolded, an Afrikaans language movement, the Afrikaner National Party, a secret society—the Broederbond (Brotherhood), separate volk schools, various welfare organizations and the Federation of Afrikans Cultural Organizations all helped to strengthen the white nationalist movement that was to capture the South African state in 1948. Afrikaner corporations helped to consolidate that power—SANLAM, VOLKSKAS and Federale Mynbou being pre-eminent. Afrikaner leadership was nurtured within the white trade union movement. Having gained control of the state, Afrikaners also came to dominate the civil service as well as the extensive parastatal sector of the apartheid economy. They established their ascendancy in the military and police. As Dr. Malan put it in 1938 when speaking at the centenary of the Battle of Blood River: “The Trekkers received their task from God's hand. They gave their answer. They made their sacrifices. There is still a white race. There is a new volk.” A decade later that nation had come to power.

Type
Perspectives on South African Liberation Valparaiso University School of Law Symposium October 28-31, 1987
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , 1987 , pp. 299 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1987

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References

1. Bloedriviers Eeufees-Gedenkboek 124 (du Toit, A.G. & Steenkamp, L. eds. 1939)Google Scholar.

2. Walshe, P., Church Versus State in South Africa. The Case of the Christian Institute 41, 76 (1983)Google Scholar.

3. Prior, A., Catholics in Apartheid Society 54–66 (1982)Google Scholar.

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5. For a detailed analysis of the Cottesloe Consultation, see Walshe, supra note 2, at 10-19.

6. South African Council of Churches, A Message to the People of South Africa 7 (1968)Google Scholar.

7. Early examples of this Black Theology, including papers by Ntwasa, Sabelo, Buthelezi, Manas, Biko, Steve, Pityana, Nyameko and Goba, Bonganjalo, can be found in Black Theology. The South African Voice (Moore, B. ed. 1973)Google Scholar.

8. Examples of Boesak's, Allan writing include Farewell to Innocence (1977)Google Scholar, The Finger of God (1982), Black and Reformed (1984) and If This is Treason, I Am Guilty (1987).

9. Pastoral Letter of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference on the Proposed New Constitution for South Africa (Pretoria, 20 07, 1983)Google Scholar.

10. Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, Report On Namibia (Pretoria, 1982)Google Scholar.

11. Nolan, A., Taking Sides 9 (1986)Google Scholar.

12. Institute for Contextual Theology, Whose Theology? 20 (1985)Google Scholar.

13. The Kairos Theologians, The Kairos Document: Challenge to the Church: A Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa (1985)Google Scholar.

14. Id. at I.

15. Id. at 15-20.

16. The Harare Declaration, in From South Africa - A Challenge to the Church. Three Significant Documents 35 (1987)Google Scholar.

17. The Lusaka Statement (Lusaka, Zambia, 05 8, 1987)Google Scholar.

18. Evangelical Witness in South Africa 5 (1986)Google Scholar. See also Weekly Mail (Johannesburg), 22-28 May 1986.

19. See The Economist, 4 July 1987.

20. Hope, M. & Young, J., The South African Churches in a Revolutionary Situation 91, 144 (1981)Google Scholar. For greater detail see Knight, D., Beyond the Pale: the Christian Political Fringe (1982)Google Scholar.

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