"The writing on the wall is RED!"
"The struggle between Eastern and Western nations, between communism and Christendom, is such that both groups will grant and concede anything (including the white man of Africa, his possessions and his rights) to seek the favor and support of the black man."
HF Verwoerd, 1960
"It is thanks to the sense of religion of our forebears that we are still a Christian nation and not a bastard nation, as happened to the Europeans in South America."
"The struggle for South Africa is neither political nor military, it is spiritual. Our children will be forced into anti-God and an anti-Christian system."
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 In this piece I am looking at how religion was used to suit the ends of white supremacists (especially Afrikaners) in the days of apartheid in South Africa. There can be no doubt as to the gargantuan role religion played in the preservation of the status quo in South Africa, more or less since the arrival of the first Dutch colonists in 1652 until 1990. The previous South African constitution started as follows:
In humble submission to Almighty God, Who controls the destinies of peoples and nations, Who gathered our forebears together from many lands and gave them this their own...
It was generally believed that white people (usually called 'the white man' in this context) saved Africa from barbarism and ignorance. The usual argument was: "They wouldn't even have had the wheel if it weren't for us!" Afrikaners who trekked into the interior of the country in the previous century had to face 'wild beasts and hostile natives' who wouldn't recognize them for what they were - the saviors of Africa. The Afrikaners (or Boers), whose sole literary possession was more often than not the Bible, liked the Old Testament especially. All that stuff about pests and war-crazy tribes and the scorched earth appealed to them immensely, so much so that they came to regard themselves as God's chosen people (a convoluted ideology when couple with their anti-semitism). They also thought of themselves as direct descendant of Calvin, which can explain their suspicious nature regarding anything new, their unwavering respect for the law and their sense of superiority, not only towards black people but also toward the British and other foreigners. Their tendency to isolate themselves can be traced to their deep-felt realization that they had a duty to fulfill.
In 1938 it was written: "It is thanks to the sense of religion of our forebears that we are still a Christian nation and not a bastard nation, as happened to the Europeans in South America." (1) It has also been stated categorically in a number of works on the subject that contact with the natives had nothing but a negative influence on the Afrikaners and that "instinctively realized that they had to resist the influence of barbarism that would drag them into the mud." (2) Elsewhere: "the standard of morality of the uneducated native is very low. We have seen that this contact is not without its ill effects on adult Europeans; on young children the side effects are still greater." (3) It can thus be seen that many white people suffered from delusion concerning one crucial matter - they were under the impression that they were still in Europe and that black people were some unfortunate scourge that could be avoided through proper hygiene and prevention.
Even in this century white leaders felt if was their God-given duty to keep the country pure. HF Verwoerd, often called the 'architect of apartheid' and who will always be remembered for saying in parliament that black people don't need mathematics, wrote in 1960: "The struggle between Eastern and Western nations, between communism and Christendom, is such that both groups will grant and concede anything (including the white man of Africa, his possessions and his rights) to seek the favor and support of the black man." (4) He was called 'God-chosen', 'the savior of white civilization' and 'the Joshua who led his people into the Promised Land' and it was a great shock when he was assassinated in 1966 by, ironically, a white man.
Religion was often used in hysterical propaganda against black consciousness and communism (often regarded to be the same thing) with phrases like "The writing on the wall is RED!" or "The struggle for South Africa is neither political nor military, it is spiritual. Our children will be forced into anti-God and an anti-Christian system." (5)
Where did the church stand in all of this? In the previous century the Boers came into conflict with British missionaries who accused them of treating black people unfairly. The missionaries were called 'negrophiliacs' and furthermore: "British ideas as to Hottentots and Kaffirs and British ideas as to slavery were in their eyes absolutely unmanly and disagreeable . . . the rights of the natives were pleaded for with a sickly passion . . ." (6)
However, Afrikaans churches gave their support (either implicitly or outright) to the system of apartheid. In a booklet called KERK EN SAMELEWING (Church and Society - 1986) which expounds the official views of the Dutch Reformed Church, it is stated: "racism is a sin that tends to adopt collective and structured forms . . . It leads to oppression and exploitation and must therefore be condemned and fought in all its forms . . . BUT from this follows that a healthy national ardor that is geared towards the creation and protection of the unique national culture, should be clearly distinguished from racism." (7) (emphasis mine) And that is what apartheid officially was - blacks had to be separated from whites so that they could "develop to the full on the basis of what is peculiarly their own . . . to be what they are and retain their own national roots." (8) The booklet goes on to say that: "The suffering of people shouldn't be ascribed only to apartheid but to a variety of economical, social and political factors . . . " (9) By referring to apartheid, KERK EN SAMELEWING has been said to represent a breakthrough in the church's attitude towards the South African situation.
A Sunday school text book of the same church written in 1989 is less ambivalent. It tells young people that the Bible expects absolute loyalty to their country and its leaders and that the compulsory military service to fuel the war fought in Angola is a privilege for all white male civilians. the problem of pacifism is skirted with an 'if there were no sin in the world, there'd be no war, but alas . . .' approach - "About this we needn't say very much. If there weren't people who wanted to usurp this country, military service would never have been necessary." (10)
But the very next year, 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and it was clear that the old order had changeth and maketh way for the new. The Dutch Reformed Church, being on of the more enlightened Afrikaans churches, gave an official apology for the travesties of apartheid, as led by Johan Heyns who was later killed by right-wingers. But there is proof that the church hasn't exorcised the specter of apartheid as effectively as it would have liked - recently one of the very few female ministers not only resigned but also revoked her affiliation with the Dutch Reformed Church over an article in which she called Afrikaner nationalism the biggest divide in the church and claimed that the church was being abused as the last vestige of Afrikanerdom.
In 1838 the Boers won a battle over the Zulus, after praying to God and vowing to keep that day in remembrance should they win. So many Zulus died in this battle (it has even been said that angels helped the Boers) that they turned the water of the nearby river red - hence the name of the Battle of Blood River. Commemorating this gruesome event has become a prickly issue, with many people disregarding it, but for disgruntled, conservative whites it is now a flagship event and early this year in an article describing the celebrations, it was written in a small newspaper: "God chooses to triumph over whom and whenever He wants." (11)
NOTES:
1 Die Sosiale Gewete van Afrikaanssprekendes, p. 58.
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2 Ibid., p. 139.
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3 The Education of the South African Native, quoted in ibid., p. 143.
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4 Verwoerd, p. 178.
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5 Deiu Rooi Omsingel - Ons Antwoord, p. 6.
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6 Die Sosiale Gewete van Afrikaanssprekendes, p. 120.
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7 Kerk en Samelewing, p. 22.
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8 The Making of a Nation, p. 318.
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9 Kerk en Samelewing, p. 53.
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10 Beeld, p. 150.
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11 Bronkhortspruit Streeknuus, p. 7.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Barnard, AC et al 91989). Glo en Bely (Believe and Profess).
Bronkhorstspruit Streeknuus, 9 January 1998.
Gaum, Frits (1998). "NGK 'nie wéér so magtig soos hy was;" (Dutch Reformed Church 'never again as powerful as it was'). Beeld, 27 January 1998.
General Synod of Dutch Reformed Church (1986). Kerk en Samelewing (Church and Society).
Grim, Francisc (1988). Deur Rooi Omsingel - Ons Antwoord (Surrounded by Red - Our Solution).
Hepple, Alexander (1967). Verwoerd. Political Leaders of the Twentieth Century.
Kruger, DW (1969). The Making of a Nation.
Nepgen, CC (1938). Die Sosiale Gewete van Afikaanssprekendes (The Social Conscience of Afrikaans-speakers).
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