Reconciliation

Churches in post-apartheid South Africa have rightly emphasised the need for reconciliation and intercultural relationship building. For white people, this has often translated into strategies of inclusion and of sharing. For all their value, though, such approaches usually build on linguistic, cultural, material, and spiritual resources that are the norm for the historically privileged. What...
In part two of our Redeeming Reconciliation series (watch part one here) Ryan Saville sat down with One Mokgatle and Jennie Tsekwa to talk about the practicalities of reconciliation. How do we actually practice reconciliation when our country and our churches remain so divided and divisive? How do we work towards deep and meaningful reconciliation in a context saturated with cheap concepts of reconciliation? What do meaningful acts of reconciliation…
O, Father, you know my heart, you know my fears and worries, you know my disappointment, my temptation to give in and give up. You are the Creator of these people, in this, your world; you are the Creator of me, in this, your world. You ordain steps, and you’ve brought us here; and yet you know my heart full of questions. You hem me in, behind and before, and…
Brackenfell wat wil jy my vertel? Vertel van die stryd Oor ‘n aand Wat min anders was as laas Saterdag aand Want elke aand sit ons bymekaar, Met min mense wat staar, Want ons almal lyk en klink soos mekaar.
One afternoon my children and I drove past a school where the students coming out and parents waiting were overwhelmingly white. Less than a kilometre away, on the same street, we drove past another school, where the students and parents were only black or coloured. My son noticed this and asked me why there was such a different picture outside these two schools, so close and yet so far. Another…
  What do we make of the past ten days in South Africa? How do we process the violent protests, looting, food shortages, apartheid-style racial profiling, and restriction of access to shops and communities? How do we sort through the short-term and long-term impact on our country? What are the underlying causes and how does...
Reconciliation has become something of a dirty word in South Africa, synonymous with a cheap reconciliation and a superficial notion of societal change. A concept which asks much of black people whilst asking relatively little of white people in return. A concept which deals with individual forgiveness but leaves unjust structural systems largely untouched. Nowhere...
Racial trauma is the accumulative effects of racism on an individual’s mental and physical health. In this episode, David and John sit down with psychologist Helen Malgas to discuss racial trauma, what it is, and how it affects us. Can even processes of speaking out or reconciliation contribute to continued racial trauma? How has the church in the past contributed to racial trauma and how might churches today be continuing…
In this episode David and John discuss former deputy president FW de Klerk's recent statement (and subsequent apology) that apartheid was not a crime against humanity. We discussd de Klerk's history of similar statements, as well as his testimony before the TRC. We probed what biblical repentance could look like and explored if the church in South Africa was guilty of a cheap repentance. In particular we asked if white…