Monday 6th February- A day in Promosa township, near Potchefstroom

A typical home in Promosa

Having been to South Africa several times, I perhaps should guess that surprises often turn up.  But in my visit to Promosa township with Revd Sydney Magobotla, the issues which were raised were not only the ones I expected.

Sydney has retired from his former work in a munitions factory (making explosives for the mining industry & high calibre bullets) and is a very active (unpaid) priest in Promosa where he lives; he is also the archdeacon of the Cathedral Archdeaconry (a group of parishes in the centre of the diocese).

He is an intelligent, thoughtful and gracious man and my time with him has been enthralling.  He has been patient with my questions and offered balanced views on issues which must be very painful for him to recall.

My first shock was his excellent command of Afrikaans (the language of the majority of white Afrikaaner population).  This was closely followed by a second shock, his revelation that this was the mother tongue of most of the 500,000 people who live in Promosa. 

I had (in a rather simple minded fashion) thought that Afrikaans was spoken only by a few of the non white community.  But it turns out that the coloured population (ie those not white, but with some element of mixed racial background) had been employed by the whites (under the apartheid system) as carers & nannies and for other “responsible” jobs.  As a result they had learned the Afrikaaner language, and it had become the main means of communication.  It still is.

The level of social engineering which was undertaken under apartheid is staggering.  I cannot put down all the things I have heard, but one of the most disturbing was the forced removal of whole communities of “non whites” to other (less good) locations (because the land was needed by the white community).   Might we call this ethnic cleansing?  It is probably not for me as an outsider, with one day’s information, to comment. 

Revd Sydney with Ma Sarah (at 101 years old, Promosa's oldest resident)

What is truly amazing is the even handed way which I hear Revd Sydney speak about all this.  He and his family were forcibly removed in the 1960s  and endured the regime until the 1990s, yet he is calm and sparing with the detail when he tells me about these things.  And all the people I meet in their homes greet me warmly and thank me for coming to see them.

Ma Sarah, (101 years old) is the oldest resident in Promosa.  Sydney and I greeted her and prayed with her.  Born in 1910 she has seen more than anyone of the changes in the life of her community.  And it is a real community; Revd Sydney seems to know all the people we pass and there is a sense of permanence in the hot streets, even if the houses are smaller than the residents would like.

But the evil seed of apartheid continues to bear fruit.  There remain tensions, a legacy of inequality and injustice, which can be a breeding ground for crime. Unemployment for young people after they finish school, can lead to a sense of hopelessness- leading to the temptation to turn to drugs.

The final shock of the day is an issue I had not expected- but which seemed to keep cropping up with every visit.  It is one which we talk about a lot in the UK- but more as a topic of interest rather than the life affecting reality that it is here:  Climate change.

Revd Sydney wih Jan (86) near the step which floods

It felt as though someone had scripted some of the conversations I had today- as if a “theme for the day” had been agreed.  Many people talked about how the climate has (not “will be”) changed.  Bishop Steve yesterday commented about rain continuing later into the season, so that crops do not have chance to dry out.  Jan (an 86 year old Promosa dweller) is having to fund building a canopy (out of his meagre pension) over his front door- since the rain now comes more fiercely and floods over his step.  Crops in people’s gardens in the townships no longer grow as well because of changes in rain patterns.

Sydney and I talk about this, and he explains, that if the farmers harvests are less good, the price of food rises and it is the poor who suffer first and most.

A diocese of Matlosane poster for 2012 is on his wall.  On of the sentences reads… “We won’t have a world if we continue to destroy the environment!”

This is a message from South Africa for us all.

This all sounds bad news.  And it is.  But the good news is in the way, in this community, churches of all denominations are coming together.  They take action with marches around the areas where drugs are being sold.  Meet together for 10 days of worship in the days after Pentecost.  This is not a hopeless situation.  God has not finished with us yet!

Making sense of all this bends my mind.  It is too much to take in.  Tomorrow will bring more revelations I suspect.

But I know that, whether it is the consequences of apartheid or global warming or social evils which we may be more aware of.  In all of these instances, the church has the message of hope that every community needs.  That God loves us, and that he hasn’t given up on us- he waits for us to respond to his love in Jesus.  Both in Lichfield and Matlosane… if we are serious about following the Lord Jesus… then God will use us as agents of peace, hope and change. Lord make us like this please.

Richard