Race and Identity

September 12 1977 is etched in memory as the day when the world was robbed of one of its greatest of minds - Steve Bantu Biko.

For the powers at that time his death became logical, given that the initial cruelty routinely meted out to black people was the foundation on which their power was built.

Tampering with that foundation Biko staked himself as a native that that power could ill afford to live with.

When the only option for such a power hinges on killing, silencing comes naturally.

A call to churches worldwide to educate people about racism was made by church leaders from across the Americas and the Caribbean at the end of a conference held last week in Managua, Nicaragua.

The conference, which was organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Latin America Council of Churches (CLAI), focused on the violence of racism against people of African descent in the region.

It was the first ever conference to bring together church leaders of Afro-descendent communities in the Americas and the Caribbean.

Dr Jorge Ramirez Reyna, president of Asociación Negra de Defensa y Promoción de Derechos Humanos (Black Association for Human Rights Defense and Promotion, ASONEDH) in Peru, reflects on the issue of racism in his country and the role of the conference on the Violence of Racism in Latin America, which was organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) 22-24 June in Managua, Nicaragua. He was interviewed by Sean Hawkey.

How is racism playing out in Peru today?

Church leaders from across the Americas and the Caribbean are meeting in Managua, Nicaragua, to discuss the violence of racism, and the challenges it poses for churches and ecumenical organizations.

The conference is sponsored by World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the Latin America Council of Churches (CLAI) and brings together people working with Afro-descendent and indigenous communities across the region.

Written By Bobby Jordan

For some homeowners, a squatter camp mushrooming next door could be a sign to start packing up.

Darren Clarke, however, saw it as an opportunity to help start a decent rugby team.

Clarke and other residents of well-heeled Noordhoek in Cape Town have teamed up with township rugby players to form the country's newest and most unusual rugby club.

Written by Des Morgan

I live in a deeply divided society.  I have not lived long enough in any other part of the world to know for certain whether this is a unique problem for South Africa.  What I do know is that on any one day in South Africa, newspaper reports alone make one acutely aware of the deep divisions in South African society, whether it be between one race group and another, or between one gender and another, or between one socio-economic group and another.

There is a custom in some churches to read out the Ten Commandments every Sunday in Lent as a way of calling to mind our sins. When you read these “Ten Words” as they are sometimes called in Hebrew, there is no doubt that they call a spade a spade! There is no beating around the bush with some generalized statement about sin. On the contrary the whole gamut is named, from idolatry to adultery, from blasphemy to covetousness, from stealing to murder, from respecting parents to lying.

Written by Jonathan Jansen

My South Africa is the working-class man who called from the airport to return my wallet without a cent missing.

Written by Kiru Naidoo

My family was shipped as human cargo. A hundred and fifty years ago today, a paddle steamer, the SS Truro from Madras, docked in Durban harbour. On board were 342 Indian coolies destined for the sugar plantations and eventually the mines, railways and domestic service of colonial Natal.

Written by Jonathan Jansen

Does South Africa really belong to all who live in it? When I first developed a sense for politics, as a teenager on the Cape Flats, wallowing in anger, this was the one clause in the Freedom Charter that upset me: "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white."

They (whites) came from elsewhere; they caused all our problems; they took the land and exterminated the indigenous people, such as the San; they uprooted, disenfranchised, tortured and killed black people at will.