Today Nelson Mandela is being laid to rest in Qunu, a small village near his family’s property. The funeral is expected to be one of the largest in modern times.
In his tribute at Tuesday’s Memorial service, President Obama compared Mandela to Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., calling him “the last great liberator of the 20th century.” This description is apt because he was instrumental in overthrowing apartheid, Africa’s version of the segregation that existed in the United States until 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was adopted.
Apartheid, which means “separateness”, was the church sanctioned legislation that the government adopted in 1948 that divided people into four groups: white, black, coloured and Indian. This policy forced blacks to live in townships and worship in their own churches and forced racial separation in everything from education to beaches to water fountains.
Mandela, a thirty year old lawyer when apartheid was implemented, tried legal and political means to oppose this cruel system. But when the police killed sixty-nine blacks protesting peacefully on March 21, 1960, a date that is still celebrated in South Africa today in memory of the Sharpeville Massacre, he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), saying, “there remain only two choices – submit or fight.” A year later he was convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison. During his twenty-seven years in prison he continued to be the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement. Mandela was finally released when F.W. De Klerk, a sympathetic politician, became president in 1989. Eventually these two men shared the Nobel peace prize for working together to demolish apartheid. When the next elections were held, an election in which every person was allowed to vote, Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. By then, Mandela was fully committed to non-violent protest and his gentle ways endeared him to people around the world.
The church that supported apartheid during those years was the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) of South Africa. They established a church for “coloureds” in 1881. In 1951 they established the Dutch Reformed Church of Africa (DRCA) for “blacks only.” That’s why I always cringe when someone refers to Hope Fellowship as a “Dutch Reformed Church” because of our immigrant roots. It is important to know that the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA), of which we are a member congregation, reprimanded the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa in 1984, calling apartheid a “sin” and a “theological heresy.” Admittedly, our denomination’s reprimand came late, as did our adoption of the Belhar Confession, a powerful ecumenical faith statement about racial equality and justice that was written a few years before Nelson Mandela was freed. But we did not remain silent.
At a speech that he gave to the Zionist Christian Church in 1992, he said: “We affirm it and we shall proclaim it from the mountaintops, that all people – be they black or white, be they brown or yellow, be they rich or poor, be they wise or fools, are created in the image of the Creator and are his children.” He concluded his address by saying, “May this Easter bring with it the blessings of the our risen Messiah and may His love shine upon you all.”
Today, people of every hue, image bearers all, will be united at his funeral in Qunu. This multi-racial gathering is a fulfillment of Mandela’s dream and hopeful proof that the God who sent Jesus to save us from our sins is also the God who continues to bring about justice and reconciliation through heroic peacemakers like Nelson Mandela.
- Pastor Peter
In his tribute at Tuesday’s Memorial service, President Obama compared Mandela to Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., calling him “the last great liberator of the 20th century.” This description is apt because he was instrumental in overthrowing apartheid, Africa’s version of the segregation that existed in the United States until 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was adopted.
Apartheid, which means “separateness”, was the church sanctioned legislation that the government adopted in 1948 that divided people into four groups: white, black, coloured and Indian. This policy forced blacks to live in townships and worship in their own churches and forced racial separation in everything from education to beaches to water fountains.
Mandela, a thirty year old lawyer when apartheid was implemented, tried legal and political means to oppose this cruel system. But when the police killed sixty-nine blacks protesting peacefully on March 21, 1960, a date that is still celebrated in South Africa today in memory of the Sharpeville Massacre, he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), saying, “there remain only two choices – submit or fight.” A year later he was convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison. During his twenty-seven years in prison he continued to be the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement. Mandela was finally released when F.W. De Klerk, a sympathetic politician, became president in 1989. Eventually these two men shared the Nobel peace prize for working together to demolish apartheid. When the next elections were held, an election in which every person was allowed to vote, Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. By then, Mandela was fully committed to non-violent protest and his gentle ways endeared him to people around the world.
The church that supported apartheid during those years was the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) of South Africa. They established a church for “coloureds” in 1881. In 1951 they established the Dutch Reformed Church of Africa (DRCA) for “blacks only.” That’s why I always cringe when someone refers to Hope Fellowship as a “Dutch Reformed Church” because of our immigrant roots. It is important to know that the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA), of which we are a member congregation, reprimanded the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa in 1984, calling apartheid a “sin” and a “theological heresy.” Admittedly, our denomination’s reprimand came late, as did our adoption of the Belhar Confession, a powerful ecumenical faith statement about racial equality and justice that was written a few years before Nelson Mandela was freed. But we did not remain silent.
At a speech that he gave to the Zionist Christian Church in 1992, he said: “We affirm it and we shall proclaim it from the mountaintops, that all people – be they black or white, be they brown or yellow, be they rich or poor, be they wise or fools, are created in the image of the Creator and are his children.” He concluded his address by saying, “May this Easter bring with it the blessings of the our risen Messiah and may His love shine upon you all.”
Today, people of every hue, image bearers all, will be united at his funeral in Qunu. This multi-racial gathering is a fulfillment of Mandela’s dream and hopeful proof that the God who sent Jesus to save us from our sins is also the God who continues to bring about justice and reconciliation through heroic peacemakers like Nelson Mandela.
- Pastor Peter
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