“Lest We Forget”: A Postapartheid Perspective on Remembering in Liturgy for Healing and Justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Hilton Scott
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
South African ◽  
South African Context ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Future ◽  
African Context

The idea of Remembrance Day (also known as Armistice Day) in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries carries two important notions: (1) to remember significant tragedies and sacrifices of the past by paying homage, and (2) to ensure that such catastrophes are prevented in the future by not forgetting. This concept can be applied to the South African context of a society and young democracy that is living in the wake of apartheid. In certain spheres this will include decolonizing the long-standing practices of Remembrance Day in South Africa, ritualizing the event(s) to be more relevant to those who partake by shifting the focus to tragedies caused during apartheid, and remembering that such a deplorable catastrophe should never be repeated. The important liturgical functions and pragmatic outcome(s) of this notion are reconciliation, restoration, transformation and, ultimately, liberation, as South Africans look to heal the wounds caused by the tragedies of the recent past and prevent such pain from being inflicted on others in the future.

scholarly journals Regional and current problems in South Africa and their impact on literature with remarks on the evaluation of the Afrikaans Novel

Literator ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
J. Van der Elst
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
South African Context ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Modern Novel ◽  
African Context

My paper centres round a specific situation and its impact on literature in South Africa with special reference to the modern novel in the Afrikaans language and the literary evaluation of the novel. This does not mean that I exclude references to the other genres, poetry and dram a and to literatures in other languages within the South African context. Many of you might know but to clarify I would like to point out that I refer to Afrikaans as the Germanic language originating from the 17th century Dutch mother tongue of approximately 3 ½ million South Africans.

scholarly journals Practical theology as ‘healing of memories’: Critical reflections on a specific methodology

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian A. Nell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Theoretical Construct ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
African Context ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
Healing Of Memories

When developing new perspectives and paradigms for practical theology in South Africa, we obviously have to take our South African context seriously. We live in a post-conflict society in which gigantic sociocultural shifts have taken place since 1994. Many institutions and groups endeavour to address the conflict, injustices and pain of the past, including the Institute for the Healing of Memories (IHOM). The Institute makes use of a specific methodology in their workshops. Having participated in these workshops in congregational contexts as well as in the training of theological students, in this article I investigated the methodology of the Institute as a framework for new perspectives on practical theology in South Africa. Making use of Victor Turner’s theoretical construct of ‘social drama’ as one way of looking at the methodology of the IHOM, I reflected critically on the challenges that it poses to practical theology by making use of a ‘rhetorical frame’ and trying to delineate some constructive proposals for further reflections on practical theological paradigms and perspectives.

scholarly journals Historical Jesus research and relevance in South Africa

2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter J.J. Botha
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
African Context

A brief review of significant developments in South African historical Jesus research during the past three decades is given. Although historical Jesus investigations are not characteristic or even dominant in South African New Testament scholarship, some of the achievements of the scholars working in this field are not only significant contributions to the discipline but are also of considerable relevance to the challenges facing biblical scholarship in general in the South African context. South African historical Jesus publications show a distinct development from the almost unproblematic application of Jesus’ words and actions at the earlier stage to a sophisticated and nuanced juxtaposing and interrelating of modern and ancient settings at the present time. It is suggested that these developments can contribute to the exploration of alternative and appropriate theological discourses.

Our World through Our Words: the People and Their Stories through Our Ancestors’ Voices

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
Natalia Molebatsi ◽  
T Tu Huynh
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
South African Context ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Local Texture ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Urban Livelihoods ◽  
The World ◽  
African Context

Abstract The article aims to give local texture to people’s, specifically Chinese, mobilities in a South African context. Through a retelling of a grandmother’s stories to her granddaughter, we argue that they offer a vision of the world that Black and Chinese South Africans inhabited during apartheid – they disrupted the world built by the all-white government. During the apartheid period, people were forced to see the world in black and white terms, not to mention powerful and powerless. It is this reality of the past that an ancestor’s oral accounts about how her people met and interacted with people from other shores, who had different stories than hers, are important. In this article, one of the authors recalls and further reimagines these stories about people who came from afar to make their own living in South Africa, cross paths with the locals, and leave their own marks. The article also highlights the significance of “Mo-China,” the Chinese fafi gambling game in supplementing Black and Chinese South African urban livelihoods during apartheid. The article concludes by pointing out that these stories, crossing and informing worlds, are prohibited knowledge that requires new attention which debates on the Chinese presence in African contexts have neglected thus far.

The Actuary in South Africa

1957 ◽  
Vol 14 (04) ◽  
pp. 348-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. de Smidt ◽  
H. Schermann ◽  
D. W. Williams ◽  
G. Rodger
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
South African ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
History Of

The history of the actuarial profession in South Africa starts, as far as is known, during the last decade of the nineteenth century when three actuaries arrived in the Cape Colony from the United Kingdom. Two of these took up positions with the two South African life offices which were then in existence and the third became Government Actuary to the Cape Colony. By the time the Union of South Africa was established in 1910, four more actuaries had arrived from the United Kingdom, and a further four had arrived by 1920. Some of these gentlemen established permanent homes in this country, while others returned overseas after varying periods of time. It was no doubt due to these early beginnings that the actuarial homes of South African actuaries are today London and Edinburgh.The first South African-born actuary qualified as a Fellow of the Faculty in 1921, and since that time increasing numbers of South Africans have become qualified, mostly as Fellows of the Faculty.

scholarly journals The poor in the Psalms and in Tsepo Tshola’s song Indlala: African liberationist remarks

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Ndikhokele N. Mtshiselwa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Black South Africans ◽  
African Context

This article sets out to investigate how an African liberationist paradigm could be used in South Africa as a theoretical framework that shapes an inquiry into the issue of poverty in the Book of Psalms. The poor in the Davidic collections of psalms (cf. Ps 10; 23, 72; 109) will therefore be examined within the South African context in order to probe the liberating possibilities that the psalms could offer to poor black South Africans, and most importantly when the text is read in dialogue with Tsepo Tshola’s liberationist song Indlala [Starvation]. Firstly, this article discusses an African liberationist paradigm with the view to anchor the reading of psalms within a theoretical framework. Secondly, within that framework, this article uses the song Indlala as a hermeneutical tool to unlock the reality of poverty in South Africa. Thirdly, guided by an African liberationist framework the article teases out th ecategories and voices of the poor in the psalms. In the end, this article argues that the reading of poor in the Psalms, particularly with an African liberationist lens could have liberating implications for poor black South Africans.

scholarly journals Teologiese opleiding in Suid-Afrika: ’n Toekomsblik

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Burden
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Context ◽  
Critical Enquiry ◽  
Character Building ◽  
Definition Of

Theological training in South Africa: A preview What makes theological education theological? This question has been discussed from different perspectives in the past as well as in the present. The author concludes with his own definition of theological education: it is a dialogical event through which people partake in critical enquiry, testing the validity of religious witness. The unity and diversity - as well as the character-building and academic excellence - of theological education is discussed. The implications of this dialogue for our South African context is briefly considered.

Towards a Theology of Place in the South African Context: Some Reflections from the Perspective of Ecotheology

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Conradie
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Spatial Turn ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Context

AbstractA theology of place has deep roots within the Jewish-Christian tradition. However, a theology of place has become obscured as a result of various trends in modernity. It has re-emerged through a number of theological strands over the past few decades, including various branches of ecotheology. Indeed, it would not be inappropriate to identify a widespread “spatial turn” in current intellectual discourse, including Christian theology. Such developments are specifically important within the South African context where, in the theme of the 2008 annual meeting of the Theological Society of South Africa, “grace, race and space” have become deeply entangled with each other.

scholarly journals An appreciative contextual response to Jean-Pierre Wils, ‘Is there a future for “medical ethics”?’ Just Health as a public theological concern

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dion A. Forster
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Medical Ethics ◽  
South African ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
The Future ◽  
African Context

This article takes the form of an appreciative contextual response to the notion of ‘just health’ that is formulated in Jean-Pierre Wils’ article, ‘Is there a future for medical ethics?’ It approaches the notion of just health in the South African context from a public theological vantage point. The article addresses the issues of justice, care and the future of ‘medical ethics’ by adopting a position that seeks to constructively engage empire, economics and apathy in relation to just health in South Africa.

scholarly journals Archetypes of memory and amnesia in South African soap opera

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannelie Marx
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
South African ◽  
Soap Opera ◽  
South African Context ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Paradigms ◽  
African Context ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Relationship

This essay investigates the relationship between memory, or rather amnesia, in the South African context and soap opera. South Africa has only recently celebrated ten years of democracy and the past still affects the lives of its inhabitants. The country has undergone far-reaching shifts in its political, economic and cultural paradigms. These also manifest in the production of meaning in popular visual culture, and more particularly, in soap opera. South Africans remember in different ways - processes that are reflected in the narratives of local soap opera. The genre is popular and its viewers invariably identify with the extended story plots. Amnesia often comprises a large part of soap opera narrative. This essay suggests that archetypes and myths of amnesia may shed some light on these recurring themes of memory and amnesia. Initially, archetypes and myths pertaining to memory and amnesia are discussed, followed by the exploration of its manifestation in local soap opera.

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