Long Walk to Freedom: A South African Sharing

Nomveliso Sylvia Mhlanga^[1]

While we talk about a long walk to freedom, there are some people who have a longer walk to take, whose experiences cannot be heard and whose scars cannot be seen. These are women who survived under apartheid, whose husbands and sons were killed, imprisoned, or put in exile. I am talking about the people who contributed in the struggle for freedom, who supported the march to Pretoria in protest of discriminatory laws. Some of these women survived the Soweto child massacre in 1976 in protest of Bantu Education and they left school since then. But these are the people who have to be silent in their cultural or religious institutions. They cannot engage in theological studies because of their lack of resources which is the result of poverty. Although politically they have a freedom of choice it is limited due to the lack of proper education to equip them to engage in theological debates. Can they freely express themselves as members of the Christian Community? How can we make sure that decisions made in the theological world reach and are implemented in the grassroots level?

One woman from where I am come was raped on her way to church. She is from a non-Christian family. As a widow she felt oppressed by cultural norms. She came to church hoping to find someone who could listen to her. Despite the priest�s suggestion, she could not bring herself to report the rape to the police because that would bring shame to her family. Since she was not supposed to join Christianity, rape would have been regarded as her fault. That incident could have served as a platform for preachers and theologians to teach about violence against women, but no one ever said anything about it.

Does the church have space for victims and survivors of abuse and violence? It seems that when biblical stories about violence against women are read or studied, much of the church�s teaching focuses on blaming the victims. Although we learn in seminaries contextual theologies like feminist theology, African theology, women�s and gender studies, implementing some of these things in our cultural communities is a big challenge because people think that talking about sexuality is a private matter.

Although the African way of doing theology in context may differ from the Asian way, I am sure that our common goal is to see the decisions and suggestions that are put in place by theologians are implemented and critiqued in the grassroots level. That will give them the opportunity to choose and select what is most applicable and relevant to them rather than take everything as truth because it is coming from above. So if we are to be build a healthy community we need a creative way of communicating issues to the people.

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