BEYERS NAUDÉ
Family background and early life
One of eight children, Beyers Naudé was born to Jozua François Naudé and Adriana Johanna Naude (nee) van Huysteen in Roodepoort, Transvaal (now Gauteng).
In 1921, the Naudé family moved to the Cape Province town of Graaff-Reinet, in the Karoo region. Beyers Naudé attended Afrikaans Hoërskool [Afrikaans High School], matriculating in 1931. Naudé studied theology at the University of Stellenbosch and reportedly lived at Wilgenhof men's residence. He graduated in 1939 with an MA in languages and a theology degree. His sociology lecturer was the future prime minister and chief-architect of apartheid, H.F. Verwoerd. But Naudé credited Stellenbosch theologian Ben Keet with laying the groundwork for his own theological dissent.
Naudé was ordained in 1939 as a minister in the South African Dutch Reformed Church and joined the Broederbond as its youngest member. For 20 years he served various congregations, starting at Wellington in Western Cape Province (1940-1942), Loxton (1942-1945), Pretoria - South-Olifantsfontein (1945-1949), Pretoria East (1945-1954), Potchefstroom (1954-1959) and Aasvoëlkop (Johannesburg) (1959-1963) preaching a religious justification for apartheid. On 3 August 1940 Naudé married Ilse Weder, whose father had been a Moravian missionary. The couple had three sons and a daughter.
The Sharpeville massacre in 1960 (during which the South African police killed 69 black demonstrators protesting against restrictions on their freedom of movement) ended his support for his church's political teachings. In the three decades after his resignation from the denomination, Naudé's vocal support for racial reconciliation and equal rights led to upheavals in the Dutch Reformed Church.
In 1963 Naudé founded the Christian Institute of Southern Africa (CI), an ecumenical organization with the aim of fostering reconciliation through interracial dialogue, research, and publications. The DRC forced Naudé to choose between his status as minister and directorship of the CI. He then resigned his church post, left his Aasvoëlkop congregation in Northcliff, Johannesburg, and resigned from the Broederbond in 1963. As a result, he lost his status as minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. His last sermon to his congregation noted that "We must show greater loyalty to God than to man". Stoically anticipating the enormous pressure by the Afrikaner political and church establishment that was to come, he told his wife: "We must prepare for ten years in the wilderness." Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu later said "Beyers became a leper in the Afrikaner community."
In 1970 Naudé was among few white South African Christian leaders "who openly called for understanding of the WCC decision" to provide financial support for liberation movements in southern Africa.
During a 1972 trip to Germany and Britain, Naudé preached at Westminster Abbey, "the first Afrikaans theologian to be so honoured". In 1973 the state withdrew his passport, but temporarily returned it in 1974 so that he could travel to the University of Notre Dame, Chicago, to receive the Reinhold Niebuhr Award for justice and peace.
As the CI increasingly incorporated black African radicals like Steve Biko, Naudé had to bear the brunt of harassment by the state security police. The state eventually forced the CI to close in 1977.
Banning and the SACC
From 1977 to 1984 the South African government "banned" Naudé — a form of house arrest with severe restrictions on his movements and interactions. For example, he could not be in the same room with more than one other person.
In 1980 Naudé and three other DRC theologians broke with the DRC and were accepted as clergy by the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa, the black African denomination established by the white Dutch Reformed Church.
After his unbanning in 1985, he succeeded Archbishop Desmond Tutu as secretary general of the South African Council of Churches. In this role he called for the release of political prisoners (especially Nelson Mandela) and negotiation with the African National Congress. In 1987 the apartheid regime outlawed public pleas for the release of detainees. But Naudé pressed Christians to continue to publicly pray for detainees, despite government threats of imprisonment.
After 1990 Naudé occasionally opened ANC events with scripture readings. That same year he was invited by the African National Congress to be the only Afrikaner member on their delegation in negotiations with the National Party government at Groote Schuur. Despite his long association with the African National Congress, Naudé never actually joined the party.
In 2000 he signed the Declaration of Commitment by White South Africans, a public document that acknowledged that apartheid had damaged black South Africans.
After his death at 89 on 7 September 2004, Nelson Mandela eulogized Naudé as "a true humanitarian and a true son of Africa." Naudé's official state funeral on Saturday 18 September 2004 was attended by President Thabo Mbeki, other dignitaries, and high-ranking ANC officials. Naudé's ashes were scattered in the township of Alexandra, just outside Johannesburg.
He is survived by his wife, four children, and two great-grandchildren.
Despite being persecuted by his own ethnic group, Naudé "never outwardly expressed spite for his former opponents. 'I am an Afrikaner,' he said. 'I saw myself never as anything else but an Afrikaner, and I'm very grateful for the small contribution which I could have made.'"
Honors and accolades
During his life Naudé received several honors, including the Bruno Kreisky Award (Germany, 1979), the Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award (USA, 1984), the African American Institute Award (USA, 1985), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award (USA, 1985) along with Allan Boesak and Winnie Mandela, qthe Swedish Labour Movement Award (Sweden, 1988), the Order of Oranje-Nassau (Netherlands, 1995), Order for Meritorious Service (Gold) (South Africa, 1997), and the Order of Merit (Germany, 1999).
Naudé received fourteen honorary doctorates during his lifetime and in 1993 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee.
Legacy
In 2001 the city of Johannesburg, where he had lived most of his life in the suburb of Greenside, honored Naudé in several ways. Naudé received the Freedom of the City of Johannesburg while DF Malan Drive, a major road in Johannesburg, was renamed Beyers Naudé Drive as well as Beyers Naudé Square. The Library Gardens in downtown Johannesburg also bears his name. In 2004 Naudé was voted 36th among Top 100 Great South Africans in an informal poll conducted by a television program of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Naudé was called "one of the true Christian prophets of our time" by the acting secretary of the World Council of Churches, Georges Lemopoulos. The University of the Free State changed the name of one of its hostels (JBM Hertzog) to Beyers Naudé.
Oom Bey: NALATINGSKAP VAN NAASTELIEFDE
Op 10 Mei 1915, is Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé – alombekend as oom Bey – in Roodepoort in die destydse Transvaal gebore. Hy is natuurlik bekend as iemand wat tydens die apartheidsera al sy Afrikaner-bevoorregting prysgegee het ten bate van sy geloof, dat jy jou naaste moet liefhê soos jouself.
Vandag in ń tyd van grootskaalse korrupsie, nepotisme en politieke magsmisbruik deur ’n onbevraagtekenbare elite van voormalige onderdruktes, is dit dalk goed om weer na die nalatenskap van iemand soos Beyers Naudé te kyk.
In die era waarin oom Bey gebore is, was die Afrikaner tot ’n groot mate in dieselfde posisie as wat swart Suid-Afrikaners voor 1994 was. Hulle is onderdruk en oorheers deur ’n koloniale owerheid. Daar was min ekonomiese geleenthede vir Afrikaners. Hul taal en kultuur is geminag. Die Anglo-Boereoorlog met sy konsentrasiekampe en volksmoord was nog vars in die geheue.
So is oom Bey dan ook genoem na genl. Christiaan Frederick Beyers, onder wie sy pa, Jozua, tydens die Boereoorlog as nie-amptelike kapelaan gedien het. Jozua Naudé was dan ook ’n stigterslid en eerste voorsitter van die Afrikanerbroederbond, wat in daardie stadium om selfbehoud vir die Afrikaner geveg het. In later jare – met die verkryging van mag – het die Broederbond natuurlik eerder bekend geword vir sy verskansing van apartheid en misbruik van mag.
Ná sy skoolopleiding in Graaff-Reinet, het Beyers Naudé teologie aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch gaan studeer. Hier was onder andere H.F. Verwoerd – die latere eerste minister en argitek van apartheid – ’n sosiologie-dosent van hom.
In 1939 word Beyers Naudé toegelaat as predikant van die NG Kerk en word hy ook die jongste lid van die Broederbond.
Oor die volgende twee dekades dien hy as predikant by verskeie NG gemeentes. In dieselfde tydperk verkry die Afrikaner politieke mag; apartheidswetgewing word uitgevaardig en despoties afgedwing.
Die Sharpeville-menseslagting van 1960 bring ’n groot draaipunt in die lewe van Beyers. As moderator van die Suid-Transvaalse sinode, neem hy deel aan ’n gesprek tussen die Wêreldraad van Kerke en 80 verteenwoordigers van Suid-Afrikaanse kerke in Cottesloe, Johannesburg.
Tydens hierdie beraad word alle rassediskriminasie binne kerke verwerp en erkenning gegee aan die reg van alle mense om grond te besit en ’n sê in hul regering te hê. Beyers was ál een van sy kerk se afgevaardigdes wat hierby bly staan het en so standpunt teen enige teologiese ondersteuning van apartheid ingeneem het.
In 1963 bedank hy onder groot druk as NG predikant en as lid van die Broederbond. Tydens sy laaste preek in die Aasvoëlkopgemeente in Northcliff, Johannesburg, vra hy pertinent: “Wie se koninkryk kom eerste? Die Koninkryk van God of van ’n volk?”
Van toe af is Beyers deur die Afrikaner-gemeenskap verwerp en as ’n volksverraaier uitgekryt. Hy was, in die woorde van emeritus-aartsbiskop Desmond Tutu, ’n melaatse binne die Afrikaner-gemeenskap.
In die daaropvolgende jare begin Beyers swart gemeentes in onder meer Alexandra bedien en raak ook al hoe meer aktief by die stryd, sonder geweld, teen apartheid betrokke.
Ná sy dood in 2004 het oudpres. Nelson Mandela Naudé besing as: “ ’n Ware humanis en ’n ware seun van Afrika.”
Ten spyte daarvan dat hy deur sy eie volksgenote verguis en gekruisig is, het Beyers nooit enige hatigheid teenoor die Afrikaner gekoester nie.
“Ek is ’n Afrikaner. Ek het myself nooit as iets anders as ’n Afrikaner gesien nie en ek is baie dankbaar oor die klein bydrae wat ek kon lewer.”
Naudé was uniek in die sin dat hy teen sy eie bevoorregting opgestaan het teen dít wat verkeerd is. Sy nalatenskap is een van naasteliefde.