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2008: Francis Wilson, Jim Cochrane, Horst Kleinschmidt, Derek Kotze and David Russell
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Above: Christian Institute staff mid 1970s.
Back row: Denis Beckett, Merle ....., Peter Randall, Harry Ngada, ????, Malcolm McCarthy, Horst Kleinschmidt, ???
Front row: ??, ??, Oshadi Phakathi, Bev Wilkinson, ???, Patsy Kirkman, ???
Very front: Beyers and Ilse Naudé, Isobel Randall.
Back row: Denis Beckett, Merle ....., Peter Randall, Harry Ngada, ????, Malcolm McCarthy, Horst Kleinschmidt, ???
Front row: ??, ??, Oshadi Phakathi, Bev Wilkinson, ???, Patsy Kirkman, ???
Very front: Beyers and Ilse Naudé, Isobel Randall.
Above: Beyers Naudé, by Christine Crowley 2021.
Below: Person Beyers Naudé and Cedric Mayson worked with from 1979 onward, in the underground:
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Rita Ndzanga 17.10.1933 - 18.8.2022.
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The Christian Institute of Southern Africa.
I started working for the CI from 1972 until 1977 when it was banned. After 1977, from exile, I worked with individuals of the CI through clandestine channels on diverse projects the SA regime considered as
treasonable if found out.
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From about 1980 a new technology became available to us. Our communication across the cordon sanitaire between the internal and external, between those inside South Africa and those fighting from exile, had just become a little easier. Microfilm meant we could hide communications - page could suddenly be reduced to 50x50mm. A postcard from Greece, by a contact, could now be sent to a distant contact of Beyers Naudé's. When delivered to him he knew to steam off the stamp underneath which he found two micro images. A friendly librarian at Wits would enlarge the images - no questions asked.
To transfer whole documents, publications and books the m-f images were hidden in gifts that unsuspecting European visitors would give to someone - who'd give the gift to Beyers. Transistor radios, the seams of cloth and more all served to have two-way communication. From the Beyers Naudé SB files it becomes clear that no interception of communication between him and London (myself) happened for throughout the 1980's. Micro-film or micro-fiche assisted underground planning and with that unity of purpose and action. Today m-f is out of date and it is hard to find m-f readers or printers. |
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<<"Oom Bey, my Pa", brilliantly written and performed. Performed in Somerset West and alter at the Artscape in Cape Town
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There are so many who carry trauma that the former apartheid police-state imposed on them. Here I want to pay tribute to Kimberley Mayson, teenager in 1982 not knowing if her father might be given the death penalty and be hanged. |
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Everyday police harassment of the Christian Institute and Rev Theo Kotze in particular. |
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1978 Durban picket against police brutality at Crossroads in Cape Town. Legally picketers had to stand apart. Picketers Archbishop Denis Hurley and Ingrid Steward.
Bottom: Photographing the SB photographing the picketers. Photo credit: Reinier Holst also once a Staff member of the Christian Institute. |
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Ad Zeillenmaker and Erik Andriessen of Kairos, Netherlands, late 1970s
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| James Moulder 1968 on the need to meddle in politics. Grahamstown - students Mafeje.pdf |
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ca. 1978 in the Netherlands. On the right Toine Eggenhuizen, next to HK. On the left Lieke Frese. Toine a good and loyal friend died during the 2020 pandemic.
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Johann Naudé and wife greeting Penelope Mayson. In the background Rob Adam. 2019 at the top of the old Fort Prison after an exhibit was unveiled, including on Cedric Mayson in the cell in which he was kept.
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Steve Biko was a senior member of the staff of the Black Community Programme (BCP) - sponsored by the Christian Institute's SPRO-CAS 2. At the same time I was appointed as to the staff of the White Community Programme. We were colleagues together for less than 2 years when Steve was banned to King William's Town, not allowed to carry on his work. He was killed by the SB's in September 1977.
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Oshadi Phakathi, CI senior staff member. Prominent Black Consciousness advocate, also from exile.
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CI/Programme for Social Change poster that reads: What are you doing in the house of the Lord said the white man. I am sweeping the floor said the black man. Oh, said the white man, I thought you had come to pray. - The poster was part of a protest against racism in the churches.
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CI pamphlet announcing the opening of a CI office in Europe (language: Dutch)
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| Dunamis/RandDaily Mail article by Hennie Serfontein on a Dutch Church delegation to the Reformed Churches in SA in early 1978. Beyers was banned but plays an important role in their visit.pdf |
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Published in 2018, this book provides important context of the rise of Black Consciousness Movement during the 1970's. It also traces its relationship to NUSAS, the Christian Institute and the University Christian Movement. |
13. Biography on Anne Hope - who worked for the Christian Institute and with the Grail Movement - by Stephanie Kilroe
| New: Book on the life of Anne Hope - A CI staff member and prominent in the Grail movement.pdf |
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Anne Hope - 1930 - 2015
Above: At the wedding on Malcolm and Emmanuelle in Johannesburg, early 1990s. Ilse and Beyers in front with Olivia next to them. |
Above:
Allison Harvey with Beyers Naudé
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Cedric and Penelope Mayson, Union Buildings during the inauguration of the second democratic Government.
Below poster was issued in 1975 by the Programme for Social Change, part of the Christian Institute. It is an adaptation of the famous statement by Pastor Martin Niemöller made against Nazi rule in the 1930's. Niemöller gave talks in South Africa in the 1970's and visited the Christian Institute
Belinda Palmer, Cecilie's sister worked for the CI. As did Vesta Smith
Alison Harvey and Beyers Naudé. Allison ran the CI Christian Fellowship Trust in London. Ilse Naudé was her SA counterpart. The CFT was not banned and became one conduit for internal-external messaging.
Above: Alison Harvey passed away on 27.7.2021, I think Felixstowe, UK.
Below are 3 items, source material not necessarily by or from the CI but maybe of interest. When no author or date appear, the material is posted here because it may contribute to the context of the time.
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| Text on the bannings of 1977 |
Above: For right, Beyers Naudé, then Horst Kleinschmidt and second from left Bill Frankel (Mr X in IDAF code). The others are lawyers from SA. We met in 1990 in Windhoek at the time of the Namibian independence celebrations.
Left above: 1987 in Harare, Zibabwe: Oliver Tambo, President of the ANC with Beyers Naudé at the international conference on children in South Africa. In the background Horst Kleinschmidt. Right: Activist poster demanding the unbanning of Beyers Naudé.
Above: The
Address by Horst Kleinschmidt to the Owl Club, delivered at the Kelvin Grove, Newlands, Cape Town, 15 September 2015.
Out of sight.
The house arrest of Beyers Naudé
between 1977 and 1984.
Had Beyers Naudé lived, he would have been 100 years old this year. He was born in May 1915.
I shall assume that you all know who the troublesome Dutch Reformed priest, and one time Broederbonder, Beyers Naudé was. In 1977 the Prime Minister, BJ Vorster ordered that Beyers Naudé and the Christian Institute (CI), which Beyers founded in 1963, be banned.
If you visit the present day Beyers Naudé School for Public Theology, attached to the Theology Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch, you will there find his every word, from student days until his death meticulously recorded, except for one gaping hole, a void of seven years, from 1977 and 1984. To ban Beyers Naudé was a warning that he was halfway toward being arrested and detained without trial, and worse would come, if he did not desist from his criticism of government policy. For seven years Beyers was subjected to a form of house arrest. The banning order had 30-odd conditions which included that he could not be quoted, was not allowed to speak to more than one other person at a time, had to report at a police station regularly, had to surrender his passport, could not leave his home between six in the evening and six the next morning, etc. There was no legal avenue to appeal this arbitrary executive decree. This made Beyers traverse from uncomfortable but legal critic of apartheid, to becoming a secretive, underground operator. The description ‘revolutionary’ is not far-fetched.
Middle-class, white and Afrikaans, Beyers’ life journey is extraordinary. Well into his 50’s, this trusted and respected Afrikaner leader crossed the vast political terrain to become a trusted participant in the secret world of Black resistance. Amongst his many gifts honesty and humility stand out.
I joined the staff of the Christian Institute in 1972. In 1975, I was asked to become assistant to Beyers. A month after my appointment, I was detained under the Terrorism Act and six months after my release fled South Africa because of a tip-off that I was likely to be re-arrested. My journey took me via Botswana, Zambia, to spend 3 years in Holland, and another 12 years in the UK.
From 1977 to 1984, I was facilitating Beyers’ underground work from London. These were the hardest, most dangerous and demanding years for Beyers. From London, I felt the pressure also. There was no room error. The slightest lapse or indiscretion on my part could land Beyers in jail. When Beyers died in 2004, we had collaborated for thirty-two years.
I tell his story now not to advocate that we build a monument to a great man whom we respect and bow to from time to time. Beyers’ call for a free, truly equal, non-racial, non-racist and non-sexist South Africa remains in large measure unfulfilled. To honour him must inspire a new generation to carry on where Beyers left off. We are, today, still building the inclusive, tolerant society that is free of hunger and poverty. Beyers would urge us to act and make a difference.
To build the rainbow nation of our dreams it is right that a white Christian Afrikaner has a place in the South African narrative where liberty and egalité triumphs over our history of slavery, apartheid, inequality and domination of one group over another.
But, back to Beyers during the years when he was banned.
In a letter dated 27th October 1977, a week after the Christian Institute, Beyers himself, and many others were banned, he wrote, “… I’m willing to serve wherever my presence could make the greatest and most meaningful contribution.” A year later, in a letter, dated 9 October 1978, he wrote: “As long as God gives me the necessary strength, I shall continue. I have no intention of withdrawing or ‘retiring’ or discarding the task in which I am involved … with the full awareness that a moment may arrive where I may find it impossible to continue”. He wrote this from his home in Greenside, Johannesburg. The letters were smuggled out of the country because posting them would have meant interception, and providing the Security Police (SB) with evidence of his continued activism. This would have lead to charges against him, from breaking the terms of his restriction order, to sedition.
During the years Beyers was banned, he smuggled hundreds of letters, all in his distinctive handwriting out of the country. I have collected more than 140 of his letters.
What did they say? What was Beyers up to? - They provide a window into the opaque world he entered after October 1977.
The early letters raise questions whether to build a Christian underground liberation movement or whether instead, to join as Christians, an existing liberation movement. If so which movement? - Beyers and others eventually sided with the ANC. This was controversial but inevitable – contrary to Black Consciousness the ANC was inviting whites to work with it. Some of those banned felt they had reached the end of the road of struggle. Yet others forcefully opposed the decision to work with the ANC because they wanted the newly banned Black Consciousness Movement to become a third liberation force that should eventually replace the ANC and PAC. For several reasons this never happened. The most important was that the cold war politics that was imposed on African freedom struggles at that time, made it impossible for a third liberation movement to gain a foothold in the world of exile.
Several of Beyers’ letters concern the modalities of the delicate transit from the open and legal world of opposition, into the hidden and secretive underground, one that was fraught with new and additional danger. The SB’s were already watching every one of us, including those abroad. The system we built could not be perfect but neither was that of the police who had a very patchy rate of success.
The new situation raised the obvious question: How would we pursue our objectives if not through public pronouncement? If the tool of public discourse and the contestation of ideas was no longer open to us, what do you actually do?
As the letters show, despite Beyers’ choice to support the ANC, he did not betray his Black Consciousness associates. They were at that time a formidable internal, but since 1977 also banned, resistance thrust. Beyers kept close links with Steve Biko. At one point Beyers and his banned CI colleague, Rev. Cedric Mayson, were involved in arrangements to smuggle Steve Biko from his place of banning in the Eastern Cape to Botswana so he could meet up with Thabo Mbeki. This was a highly risky and logistically difficult operation. The meeting never happened because Biko was killed in September 1977, just prior to the comprehensive bannings. This undercut the possibility of co-operative relations between the largely external ANC and the internal BCM. In my view these two leaders had it in them to spearhead a political break-through much sooner than 1994 brought us. Not only did the murder of Steve Biko prevent such a meeting, history will eventually tell that Thabo Mbeki, because of the position of the South African Communist Party did not have as free a hand as he might have liked. (I am not suggesting that the SACP shopped Biko – I am merely suggesting that the SACP saw a ‘bourgeois’ and non soviet-trained influence, as fatal to their interests inside the ANC). Whatever setbacks there were, Beyers continued to build bridges between the ANC and Black Consciousness. He did so on his own terms even when the ANC was hostile or dismissive of the Black Consciousness people.
After Steve Biko’s death, Beyers contemplated going into exile. With Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi there was a plan in 1978, to create a new thrust for change and to demand negotiations with the apartheid rulers. A press conference with Oliver Tambo, the ANC president, in Lusaka, was in the offing. I was charged with the arrangements to get Beyers to Mozambique and then to Lusaka. A Canadian pilot and light aircraft stood ready at Midrand airport. But the time was not ripe. It was assessed that PW Botha was not willing to talk or find a political solution. The plan was abandoned at the last minute. Thus, Beyers retained his internal role.
Throughout these years, Beyers built a massive hidden funding conduit for individuals and organisations to re-build the resistance the apartheid regime had temporarily smashed. His coded letters testify to his countrywide reach. Getting money to Beyers was a formidable challenge. The banking system could not be used nor trusted. US dollars and British pounds could not be converted at any bank. We required used South African Rand notes – hundreds of thousands of them. To overcome this we found rich South Africans, keen to secretly get their money out of South Africa. Their need for secrecy was just as high as our own, even though we thought their morality was very different to ours. They were willing to hand over cash – yes in suitcases. For obvious reasons, Beyers could not store this money at his home. Once more, there were new unsung hero’s, willing to hide the money until it was required. At the London end, I arranged for the funds from official German and Dutch church donors, willing to participate in this subterfuge, to have their money paid into the secret accounts these disloyal South Africans held at Coutts International and other private banks. Trust and absolute discretion were as important as timing and what conversion rate was to be applied.
You might ask: So was Beyers beholden to non-violence or did he support the armed struggle of the ANC? Without any doubt, Beyers had nothing to do with Umkhonto weSizwe (nor did I) and Beyers had explicit assurances from Oliver Tambo that Beyers and others of his persuasion, did not have to subscribe to ANC military actions. You might say this is inconsistent, and it is, but the divide between violent and non-violent responses was not as tidy as Mahatma Ghandi would have wished - that was the messy reality. Beyers continued to support non-violent actions and initiatives. One of them was to advise and fund the people that eventually lead to the formation of the United Democratic Front.
Did Beyers waver in his Christian belief? – Never and not for a moment. Primarily Beyers has to be remembered as a Christian activist and not as a man who accidentally wandered into politics. In his letters, he affirms that his religious beliefs demanded that he acts for the betterment of all humans on earth.
Beyers’ letters are a constant imploring of church leaders throughout the western world that they should urge their Governments to put renewed and additional pressure on Vorster, Botha, and then de Klerk, through sanctions and boycotts. In the early 1980’s Beyers wrote to Alan Boesak, then President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, suggesting that the time had come that the forthcoming global Calvinist Church gathering in Ottawa declare apartheid a heresy. Boesak made the case eloquently and as a result, the South African Dutch Reformed churches were expelled from the world body.
Did Beyers disavow his roots and Afrikaans background? Not for one minute. He loved Afrikaans and believed his people needed liberating from the racial ideology of apartheid. He wanted Afrikaans not to be a white man’s language but one that belonged to a much wider section of South Africans. His passion for reconciliation remained his abiding pursuit.
There were three ways in which we communicated, in and out of the country, in this period: smuggling letters was one way, hiding microfilmed letters and publications in innocently looking gifts was another. The third method was to call Beyers at appointed times, at different designated public phone boxes. He had the numbers of over 100 of the old tickey boxes, with a date and time next to each number throughout the Johannesburg CBD. I had the identical list, and to make monitoring more difficult, I called Beyers from public call boxes in the UK – with pockets full of 50-pence coins. - Beyers and the others of his ‘inner circle’ were never caught. The interrogations of Cedric Mayson and others in later years established that our communication was not intercepted.
In May 1990, he was invited to the first Groote Schuur talks as a negotiator on the side of the ANC, testimony to his role as a trusted comrade. His signature appears on the minutes of the meeting. This was the first of the official talks that lead to the negotiated settlement with the apartheid rulers. This was the start of what created our democracy, constitutional dispensation, and Bill of Rights.
Beyers was however, not seen in any subsequent negotiations. Was he dropped because his moral Christian pursuit of egalité did not fit into the modalities of what the parties to our new dispensation had in mind? I have not yet found the answer to this question. In 2000, when he was already confined to a wheelchair Beyers warned against the ease with which the new ruling party immersed themselves into comfort and luxury, and then sunk into corruption on an unprecedented scale. Was it that Beyers was already a step ahead and could not be part of the compromises the incoming order was busy making?
Are there Beyers Naudé’s in today’s South Africa? I would count Bishop Jo Seoka, Anglican Bishop of Pretoria, as one of them. He identified the inhuman conditions the miners at Marikana live in, long before the massacre took place. He called for dignified housing and living conditions; had he been listened to, the hopeless confrontations could have been avoided.
Are we sleepwalking into a new darkness in South Africa? Why do South Africa’s Christian denominations, once again, remain silent? Or will they eventually pronounce on the impending dangers only when injustices and the lack of services have lead to violent outburst on a scale no one is able to manage or control?
If Beyers were with us today, he would be warning those who live in sumptuous comfort or have control over limitless wealth, in and outside of Government. He would warn politicians and private sector leaders, white and black, that our social order will fail, if it is based on inequality, especially on the vast scale we have in South Africa. The growing gap between the haves and the have-nots is, he might say, once more, reaching breaking point. He was not content merely to oppose corruption and authoritarian trends whether before, or after 1994. He was concerned with the deeper systemic fault-lines.
In an interview with Beyers, not yet published, Beyers, true to character asks: “What is there that I can do to share in building a new and just society?” These are his words spoken not prior to 1994 but just before the year 2000.
Beyers’ quest for egalité has not remotely been achieved.
| SKN 26.3. Dr. Petra Kahle (1940 - 2015) |
Petra Kahle (1940 - 2015)
Address to the Reformed and Protestant Churches at the launch of the book: Contested Relations - Protestantism between Southern Africa and Germany from the 1930's to the Apartheid Era.
June 2015.
Dear friends,
Yet another missive from me.
This time I am using my knowledge of Beyers Naudé and his archive, to debate the failure, once more, of most churches to actively support change when justice and equality is denied to the Marikana mineworkers, for instance.
My audience were clergy from the Protestant and the Reformed Churches. Historically, when and if they raised alarm about impending danger and likely violence, it was only long after injustice and inequality had been imposed on the oppressed.
Attached is my keynote address delivered at the launch of a 660-page tome titled 'Contested Relations - Protestantism between Southern Africa and Germany from the 1930's to the Apartheid Era'. Nearly 40 authors contributed to this volume. The event took place on 17 June 2015 at the University of the Western Cape. It was organised by Prof. Christo Lombard, head of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Spirituality and Society, together with the Dutch Reformed Church of Southern Africa, the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa and the German initiated 'Study Process' involving the Protestant and Reformed churches of Germany. Prof. Hanns Lessing with a German and South African team were the editors. This is the second volume, the previous volume being on the period from pre-colonial to colonial times.
The books appears in English. German editions have also been published.
The first volume in this series is titled, 'The German Protestant Church in Colonial Southern Africa'. It is an equally hefty volume (600 pages) with contributions from 30 authors.
Below Newsletter can also be found on the front page of my website (as are several other entries).
Thank you all for your responses to my previous Newsletters. You have added new insight and information. Thank you!
Best wishes,
Horst.
Dear friends,
Yet another missive from me.
This time I am using my knowledge of Beyers Naudé and his archive, to debate the failure, once more, of most churches to actively support change when justice and equality is denied to the Marikana mineworkers, for instance.
My audience were clergy from the Protestant and the Reformed Churches. Historically, when and if they raised alarm about impending danger and likely violence, it was only long after injustice and inequality had been imposed on the oppressed.
Attached is my keynote address delivered at the launch of a 660-page tome titled 'Contested Relations - Protestantism between Southern Africa and Germany from the 1930's to the Apartheid Era'. Nearly 40 authors contributed to this volume. The event took place on 17 June 2015 at the University of the Western Cape. It was organised by Prof. Christo Lombard, head of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Spirituality and Society, together with the Dutch Reformed Church of Southern Africa, the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa and the German initiated 'Study Process' involving the Protestant and Reformed churches of Germany. Prof. Hanns Lessing with a German and South African team were the editors. This is the second volume, the previous volume being on the period from pre-colonial to colonial times.
The books appears in English. German editions have also been published.
The first volume in this series is titled, 'The German Protestant Church in Colonial Southern Africa'. It is an equally hefty volume (600 pages) with contributions from 30 authors.
Below Newsletter can also be found on the front page of my website (as are several other entries).
Thank you all for your responses to my previous Newsletters. You have added new insight and information. Thank you!
Best wishes,
Horst.
| SKN 26.4. "as long as Gode gives me the strength ...' |
Cedric Mayson (1923 - 2015)
Family members of Cedric Mayson the day after his funeral - at the entrance to the Fort Prison where Cedric was held during his detention and trial
Passage and doors to the cell where Cedric was held. Part of the Constitution Hill Museum today
Dear friends,
On 23rd May, Cedric Mayson died. He was nearly 88 years old. He lived an extraordinary life, as attached Newsletters attest.
Cedric came from the eastern side of London and had vivid memories of the Blitz during the last days of WWII. He came to South Africa in 1953 as a Methodist Minister. He served small rural congregations in the Eastern Cape. Later he was sent to serve white parishes in Nelspruit, Middleburg and Kempton Park. His outspoken views against apartheid resulted in all three white parishes asking him to leave. After resigning as a Minister he joined the Christian Institute in 1973. That is where we became friends. He edited the magazine Pro Veritate. On 19 October 1977 the Christian Institute, Cedric and all senior staff were banned. All Black Consciousness organizations, including a newspaper were also banned.
He was twice detained, once in 1976 when on honeymoon with his second wife, Penelope. After his second detention in 1981 he was charged with Treason. When the court accepted that he had been tortured to make a confession, the judge granted him bail. Cedric then fled to Lesotho and on to England. From there he worked for the ANC. When he and his family could return to South Africa, after the fall of apartheid, Cedric continued working for the ANC - primarily to promote interfaith dialogue. His passion was to seek ways, other than through institutional religions, in pursuit of ethical conduct, justice and equality. He was highly critical of the way Christian churches failed to live up to the gospel they proclaimed. He published several books.
His underground work included flying activists illegally out of the country (he had a pilots license) when their arrest was imminent. He also smuggled illegal literature into the country, copied cassette tapes with speeches from exiled leaders and ensured their distribution. His 'situational reports' were smuggled out of the country and served the exiled ANC to formulate responses to internal events.
He wrote lyrics, enjoyed carpentry and with his wife, spent his last years in a fenceless area south of the Kruger Park, enjoying watching the passing wild animals, and writing - often inspired by the clear star formations visible from this remote area.
Cedric was a friend and comrade. We worked closely together and during the years of the struggle this required utmost trust in each other. As the attached reports show, he literally risked his life for me.
I enjoy hearing from you and welcome your comments, observations, misgivings or stories that connected you to Cedric.
Kind regards,
Horst.
On 23rd May, Cedric Mayson died. He was nearly 88 years old. He lived an extraordinary life, as attached Newsletters attest.
Cedric came from the eastern side of London and had vivid memories of the Blitz during the last days of WWII. He came to South Africa in 1953 as a Methodist Minister. He served small rural congregations in the Eastern Cape. Later he was sent to serve white parishes in Nelspruit, Middleburg and Kempton Park. His outspoken views against apartheid resulted in all three white parishes asking him to leave. After resigning as a Minister he joined the Christian Institute in 1973. That is where we became friends. He edited the magazine Pro Veritate. On 19 October 1977 the Christian Institute, Cedric and all senior staff were banned. All Black Consciousness organizations, including a newspaper were also banned.
He was twice detained, once in 1976 when on honeymoon with his second wife, Penelope. After his second detention in 1981 he was charged with Treason. When the court accepted that he had been tortured to make a confession, the judge granted him bail. Cedric then fled to Lesotho and on to England. From there he worked for the ANC. When he and his family could return to South Africa, after the fall of apartheid, Cedric continued working for the ANC - primarily to promote interfaith dialogue. His passion was to seek ways, other than through institutional religions, in pursuit of ethical conduct, justice and equality. He was highly critical of the way Christian churches failed to live up to the gospel they proclaimed. He published several books.
His underground work included flying activists illegally out of the country (he had a pilots license) when their arrest was imminent. He also smuggled illegal literature into the country, copied cassette tapes with speeches from exiled leaders and ensured their distribution. His 'situational reports' were smuggled out of the country and served the exiled ANC to formulate responses to internal events.
He wrote lyrics, enjoyed carpentry and with his wife, spent his last years in a fenceless area south of the Kruger Park, enjoying watching the passing wild animals, and writing - often inspired by the clear star formations visible from this remote area.
Cedric was a friend and comrade. We worked closely together and during the years of the struggle this required utmost trust in each other. As the attached reports show, he literally risked his life for me.
I enjoy hearing from you and welcome your comments, observations, misgivings or stories that connected you to Cedric.
Kind regards,
Horst.
| Cedric Mayson: Obituary in Sunday Times |
| Beyers Naudé's prophetic voice is more than a time piece to remind us about apartheid |
In 1915 a great South African was born. Beyers Naudé would have been 100 years on 10th May this year. His prophetic voice and his willingness to join those in the trenches of the struggle is important now. Talks and discussion take place in Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Uppsala, Sweden and elsewhere.
| Faith as Politics. Symposium at the Nordic Africa Institute In Uppsala, Sweden. |
| Invitation-Uitnodiging: Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology. |
39 Years ago this man arranged my escape from South Africa.
Penelope and Cedric Mayson, friend and comrade April 2015.
Penelope and Cedric Mayson live in Marloth Park, near the Malelane Gate to the Kruger Park. They retired in a place where wild animals roam (except those that eat you). We spent easter with them. Cedric is nearly 88 and frail. We were colleagues at the Christian Institute and later collaborated on underground missions.
Cedric, trained as a Methodist Minister, was taught how to fly light aircraft by his wealthy parishioners many decades ago. Later he 'borrowed' small aircraft from them, on up to twenty occasions, to fly people out of the country to save them from arrest and torture. I was his first 'bundle of luggage' he flew illegally to freedom in Botswana in April 1976. The police had removed my passport and I could not leave South Africa one normally does, - and I was advised (by the ANC) to leave because a policeman (black) had informed them that others and I, were about to be re-arrested. Cedric's courage in those days is legendary. He was also meant to fly Steve Biko out (and back in) to meet with Oliver Tambo of the ANC. Steve was killed by the police whilst in detention before such a flight to Botswana could take place.
Cedric, trained as a Methodist Minister, was taught how to fly light aircraft by his wealthy parishioners many decades ago. Later he 'borrowed' small aircraft from them, on up to twenty occasions, to fly people out of the country to save them from arrest and torture. I was his first 'bundle of luggage' he flew illegally to freedom in Botswana in April 1976. The police had removed my passport and I could not leave South Africa one normally does, - and I was advised (by the ANC) to leave because a policeman (black) had informed them that others and I, were about to be re-arrested. Cedric's courage in those days is legendary. He was also meant to fly Steve Biko out (and back in) to meet with Oliver Tambo of the ANC. Steve was killed by the police whilst in detention before such a flight to Botswana could take place.
My interview with Florrie when she was honoured during the WACC gathering in Cape Town.
The Dutch Werkgroep Kairos supported the Christian Institute and Beyers Naudé in word and deed. Below find access to a website about this and other Anti-Apartheid solidarity organisations built by the International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands.
https://iisg.amsterdam/en/detail?id=https%3A%2F%2Fiisg.amsterdam%2Fid%2Fcollection%2FARCH02466
A friend from Anti Apartheid days, Richard Knight points to another great archive when researching the history of that period.
We’re excited to introduce you to the redesigned website of the African Activist Archive Project (https://africanactivist.msu.edu/) – and 530 images and documents that are newly available!
What’s new about the redesign:
• The visual appeal is great! The display of all the contents of the site is cleaner and more attractive, below the familiar banner showcasing decades of diverse activism in the U.S. New thumbnails of the first page of documents make the browse and search results more inviting to explore. For example, you can Browse by “Newsletters” and check out all the covers of “Southern Africa” magazine (published in New York City) or “Southern Africa Report” (published in Toronto).
• More ways to find exactly what you’re looking for … or just to explore. There are six new filters you can use to narrow your results from any search or browse. (Don’t worry, the Advanced Search page hasn’t changed. The Browse page still includes all the same categories, too, but they are shown in neat rectangles to click on rather than in two extremely long columns.)
We’re excited to introduce you to the redesigned website of the African Activist Archive Project (https://africanactivist.msu.edu/) – and 530 images and documents that are newly available!
What’s new about the redesign:
• The visual appeal is great! The display of all the contents of the site is cleaner and more attractive, below the familiar banner showcasing decades of diverse activism in the U.S. New thumbnails of the first page of documents make the browse and search results more inviting to explore. For example, you can Browse by “Newsletters” and check out all the covers of “Southern Africa” magazine (published in New York City) or “Southern Africa Report” (published in Toronto).
• More ways to find exactly what you’re looking for … or just to explore. There are six new filters you can use to narrow your results from any search or browse. (Don’t worry, the Advanced Search page hasn’t changed. The Browse page still includes all the same categories, too, but they are shown in neat rectangles to click on rather than in two extremely long columns.)