Sunday, 21 December 1986: So Much More than a Christmas Church Service!

Carlton Heights Hotel, Cape Town, 2:30 PM

Thought I’d do a bit of writing before I leave for a 4:00 PM church service down the street.  No, I haven’t suddenly become religious – the service is being held in support of detainees who have violated the current state of emergency or other similar nonsense.  Actually, I’m not sure the service will even happen as it sounds like a quasi-legal gathering, but if no banned organizations are sponsoring the service, it may be okay.  It seems rather difficult these days for the average Johan to know what or who is legal in South Africa or not.  For example, yesterday’s Weekend Argus ran a front-page story which indicated that an individual citizen can publicly “support or promote a call for the unbanning of the ANC.”  But, he or she cannot participate in “certain activities of 12 organisations” which are “intended or likely to have the effect of encouraging or inciting members of the public” to do so.  Regarding this questionably legal church service, I just hope the U.S. Consular Officer in Cape Town is available today to bail my ass out of jail if the cops move in to bust the participants.

It was a stroke of luck that I spotted this announcement posted somewhere in central Cape Town and decided to attend.  Source:  Will Mahoney’s personal collection.

As I noted in a previous post, I haven’t found white South Africans very communicative lately about political subjects.  Is it me or is it the people I’m meeting?  For example, during my recently completed 5-day loop by car around the Western Cape, none of the following people made any comments about politics or the USA (even though they knew I was an American); nor did they ask what I thought about South Africa:

- the innkeeper at the old hotel where I stayed the first night in Gans Bay;

- the waitress where I had a crayfish dinner that night;

- the young guy sitting next to me at the bar after dinner (he only talked about sports);

- the lady who registered me at the campground in Arniston the following evening;

- the hostess at the hotel in Arniston where I had lunch the next afternoon;

- the innkeeper at the Valley Inn in Barrydale that night;

- the old Afrikaner at the bar in Barrydale whom I tried to engage in conversation;

- the manager of the campground at Villiersdorp where I tried to rent a cottage (they were full);

- the innkeeper at the Boland Hotel in Villiersdorp where I stayed the night, nor his wife the following morning;

- the two guys in the Boland Hotel TV lounge where we watched a government exposé on the ANC.

Most of these people made small talk with me, and I might not have found avoidance of political subjects unusual except that white South Africans prior to this trip to the Cape generally did make comments of a political nature and often lectured me.  Actually, it’s been a welcome respite from the past harangues I’ve had to endure. 

Monday, 22 December, 12:15 AM, Carlton Hotel

Jesus H. Christ, I can’t believe what a terrific and worthwhile time I’ve had over the past few hours!  I’ve just arrived back in my room after the church service and a subsequent braai (barbeque). 

First of all, I arrived about ½ hour early at St. John’s Anglican Cathedral to make sure I got a good seat.  I learned that the service was, in fact, going to take place.  A friendly, middle-aged white couple sat down next to me, and we exchanged a few comments before the service started.  The woman said the Dean of the Cathedral had been informed that the service was an illegal gathering, but on advice of the church lawyers, he decided to go ahead with it with the understanding that it would be strictly “religious” and not political.  More (much more) on this couple later in this and a subsequent story.

The cathedral was full to capacity (I’d estimate 500 people) by 4:00.  The service started with hymn singing and readings from the gospels.  Hmm – a CBS camera crew was there filming – “Wow, this must be a big deal,” I thought.  I was looking on in the hymnal of the man standing next to me for one song and when it ended I looked up and who was standing there at the pulpit but THE 1984 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER and CAPE TOWN ANGLICAN ARCHIBISHOP DESMOND TUTU!!!  My mind immediately flashed back to the brief encounter I’d had with the archbishop a few months earlier on a street in Johannesburg.  I had said “Hello, Bishop” and received a “Hello” and his radiant smile in return.  There was that beautiful smile again staring out at the congregation.  I think most everyone in the audience was as pleasantly shocked to see him up there as I was.  There was no advance public announcement that he would be speaking as the organizers didn’t want to attract several thousand people to the cathedral and risk having the event cancelled by the local authorities.  

Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  The gentleman has such a wonderful presence about him which exudes copious amounts of warmth and love.

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1984/tutu/facts/ (from the Nobel Foundation Archive).

 

The Archbishop said hello and received a rather weak hello in return.  So he joked that this was a rather meek response from such a large crowd and subsequently received a much heartier greeting.  As he started speaking, I whipped out my notebook to record some of his comments.  Following are some highlights.

Tutu affirmed the legitimacy of the service noting that, “We have freedom of religion in this country, as you know.”  He pointed out that, “Peace is not just an absence of war.  It is not just a quiet period of preparation for the next war.”  Sticking with a strict religious theme, he affirmed that in the Bible, peace is something positive:  a material and spiritual wholeness.  He talked about the good and righteous leader freeing people from prison and other similar indignities.  According to the Archbishop, the just king rescues the poor.  He has pity on the weak and rescues them from the oppressors.  According to Tutu, if we want peace, prosperity, and stability, we must work for righteousness. 

If that all sounds like a bunch of biblical mumbo-jumbo, the Archbishop proceeded to get quite specific.  He said that, in accordance with the scriptures, minimum prerequisites for peace were called for in South Africa:  the State of Emergency must be lifted; troops must be removed from the black townships; organizations must be unbanned so the government can negotiate with all legitimate leaders; and detainees must be released.  “We make these demands on religious grounds,” the Archbishop declared.  “I have said nothing that is not said more bluntly in the scriptures.”

It was a masterful exercise of the freedom of religion to make a political statement that would normally be considered subversive.  Such powerful speeches can still be made in South Africa from the pulpit, especially if they are delivered by someone of Tutu’s stature.  The government would prefer not to have to deal with the outcry that would precipitate his arrest.  Having Nelson Mandela as a martyr is bad enough (He is currently serving his life sentence in Pollsmoor Prison, 20 km south of here), but jailing an archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner?  Whoa!

It was all very inspiring stuff, but I wanted something more.  I wanted to leave with some contacts.  Understandably, there was no one passing out leaflets of coming attractions given the strict prohibitions against politically subversive actions during this Christmas season.  So I followed the couple that I had been seated next to during the service.  I sensed something very impressive about them.  When I caught up with them, I commented that the service was very worthwhile and informative for me.  A conversation followed.  My instincts were correct.  The gentleman, a tall handsome fellow perhaps a couple years older than I, is Jan van Eck, a recently-elected Member of Parliament representing a suburban Cape Town district and a member of the liberal Progressive Federal Party (PFP, nicknamed the “Progs”).  His attractive wife’s name is Eunice.  

As we were exiting the cathedral, there were no uniformed cops around and the crowd started to get a bit unruly.  Africans started doing traditional dances and singing freedom songs.  Whether the church service was an illegal gathering or not was unclear but this stuff was definitely illegal.  Jan and Eunice predicted the riot police would show up soon if this continued.  They would probably make an announcement on bull horns that the crowd had two minutes to disperse.  There would be no attempt by the police to calmly defuse the situation.  So Jan and the Archbishop would attempt to mediate and keep everything cool.  I was halfway hoping for a confrontation to give me some material to write about.  Arrest might have been quite interesting especially in the company of a Member of Parliament. 

Nothing happened.  The singing and dancing stopped after less than ten minutes as the remaining crowd wasn’t big enough to sustain the momentum.  As we were leaving a few minutes later, one regular cop and two riot goons showed up but almost all participants in the service had left.  Someone suggested that the fuzz were probably watching the whole scene from an upper story of a government building across the street.  With a CBS camera crew in attendance, I doubt if the authorities wanted to provide any footage of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate being confronted by baton-waving gendarmes.    

Jan and Eunice invited me to come out to their place for a braai if I wasn’t busy.  Well, of course I wasn’t busy!  More on that in the next post.