Gunther J. Hermann, Apartheid as an ecumenical challenge. The role of the church in the South African conflict/Apartheid als okumenische Herausforderung. Die Rolle der Kirche im Sudafrikakonflikt.

Raiser, Konrad

Gunther J. Hermann, Apartheid als okumenische Herausforderung. Die Rolle der Kirche im Sudafrikakonflikt [Apartheid as an ecumenical challenge. The role of the church in the South African conflict], Frankfurt, Verlag Otto Lembeck, 2006, pp.542, 24.00 [euro]

The apartheid conflict in southern Africa preoccupied the international political and church scene for four decades, from the Sharpeville massacre (1960) up to the freeing of Nelson Mandela (1990) and, finally, the holding of the first free, democratic, non-racist elections (1994). Since then, there have been a growing number of studies on the political and economic dynamics of the conflict and its implications for the international community.

For the ecumenical movement and, in particular, the World Council of Churches (WCC), the South African conflict played a central role in the clarification of fundamental questions related to political and economic ethics as well as in the deepening of our understanding of the relationship between ecclesiology and ethics. Many current themes being discussed in ecumenical circles, for example, regarding ethnicity, nationalism and church unity, or peaceful conflict resolution and overcoming violence, not to mention social and economic justice in the context of global capitalism, were developed in an exemplary manner in relation to the apartheid conflict.

The ecumenical discussion has above all revolved around the WCC Programme to Combat Racism and its special fund, out of which the movements for the liberation of the black majority population from the yoke of racial oppression were funded. The history of this programme has in the meantime been relatively well analyzed, together with its impact on developments in southern Africa itself. This programme was an important catalyst for the broader debate around the apartheid conflict within the ecumenical family of churches. However, it is also clear that the Lutheran and Reformed churches' confessional bodies, as well as the churches in countries of North America and Europe which were South Africa's most important economic and political partners, and churches in South Africa itself, played a determinant role in resolving the South African conflict. This complex history remains to be scrutinized in terms of its significance for the "ethos" of the ecumenical fellowship of churches.

Gunther Hermann's analysis makes an important contribution in this area. He deliberately focused on the role of the German Protestant churches in this conflict and researched the numerous ramifications of the debate over the apartheid regime within the EKD, its member churches and church institutions and groups. To date, comparable studies have only been undertaken in Switzerland, so Hermann's work serves as a pilot study that, hopefully, will be followed by similar research in the United Kingdom and the United States. Although the author, when reconstructing the decisive political and ecclesial developments in South Africa itself, was able to rely on earlier works, in the case of Germany, he had to track down widely scattered pamphlets and brochures and undertake comprehensive archive searches. These he complemented with 60 conversations with direct participants and contemporary witnesses. The result is a representative and fair picture of an at times extremely passionate debate, which left deep marks in the public profile of German Protestantism.

The book is divided into four chapters of nearly equal length retracing the history of the period from 1969 to 1990 in five year instalments. This diachronic structure makes it possible to relate the ecumenical discussion in parallel to political and economic developments, both in South Africa and in Germany. It has the disadvantage of dividing the treatment of the main themes into four separate chapters, rather than inter-relating them. Numerous cross references help to maintain coherence.

Chapter I (pp.21-153), entitled "Time of Awakening 1969-1975", deals with the period stretching from the launching of the Programme to Combat Racism and the ensuing controversies both in Germany and South Africa leading up to the unrest which culminated dramatically in June 1976 with the student uprising in Soweto This chapter presents the most important players on the German and South African sides, namely the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKE)), the South African Council of Churches (SACC), church federations such as the United Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (VELKSA) and the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Southern Africa (FELCSA), as well as activist groups and institutions such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) in Germany, the Southern Africa Committee Mainz (MAKSA), the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and the Christian Institute of Southern Africa (CISA). The extensive passage devoted to EKD's "business dialogues" in 1973-1976 (p.31ff) is particularly interesting.

Chapter II (pp.154-286), entitled "White 'Reform Policy' or Black Power 1976-1980", highlights the main elements of the gathering conflict. In the South African context, this involved the consequences of the Soweto uprising, the government's Homelands policy and forced resettlements, the outlawing of 18 opposition groups and institutions including the Christian Institute of Southern Africa (1977), the forced resignation of Premier Vorster as a result of the Muldergate scandal and the reform policy of Vorster's successor, P.W. Botha. With regard to churches, this was the period of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Assembly's resolution in Dar es Salaam declaring racial separation of the church in compliance with apartheid in Southern Africa a "status confessionis" (1977), of the investment study by the SACC (1977) and of the WCC'S controversial background paper on "just resistance". Within the EKD, discussions focused on the effects of the South African government's propaganda offensive, the women's fruit boycott and the sobering assessment of the dialogues with businesses. Because of the wealth of perspectives it presents and the large body of heretofore relatively unknown background information, this chapter is perhaps the most important one in the book.

Chapter III (pp.287-408) covers the period of "Civil War-like Unrest 1980-1985". It begins with the Eloff Commission, established in 1981 to investigate alleged financial irregularities in the SACC and in this way neutralize this church body as a protagonist in the struggle against apartheid. The commission's minutes together with statements by German church representatives provide important testimony on credible Christian resistance. The chapter concludes with passages on the Kairos document (1985), the first state of emergency and the impending financial collapse of the South African government. These historical milestones are interspersed with important observations concerning the World Alliance of Reformed Churches' Assembly in Ottawa (1982) and that of the LWF in Budapest (1984) where the South African churches were suspended, the United Nations' oil and weapons embargo and violations thereof (not least by Germany) as well as the heated debate within the EKD on sanctions and boycotts.

The fourth and final chapter (pp.409-537) discusses the "Agony of the Apartheid Regime". This is the period in which economic pressure on the South African regime was starting to have an impact and the EKD finally acquiesced to the imposition of sanctions. The corresponding internal quarrels within the SACC on the one hand, and the EKD on the other, can also serve as a lesson in how to deal with the challenges of globalization in the present day. In addition, the ANC imposed itself in its role as a recognized negotiating partner, which leads Hermann to make an important interim assessment of the years-long discussion on violence and non-violence in the liberation struggle (pp.477-484).

As this brief overview shows, the book contains a wealth of detailed studies that often bring previously unknown correlations to light. The author does not dwell on his own role in the struggle against apartheid, but rather succeeds in making the diverse voices in the debate audible and thus in sketching out the profile of the opposing parties and their relative plausibility. Of particular interest is his presentation of the conflicts around the economic dimension of apartheid through all four periods and his critical but fair analysis of the positions emerging within the EKE). His development of the complex relationship between the EKD and the white Lutheran church in South Africa and Namibia over this 20-year period is also extremely useful. Since the conflicts between opposing alternatives in both domains are still far from having been resolved, as Wolfram Kistner points out in his Foreword, Hermann's book raises questions that could be developed further. His introduction identifies a complex series of questions that require further clarification (p.17ff).

What is somewhat disappointing, however, is that there was apparently a lack of time for the final editing of the manuscript, leaving an unnecessarily large number of typing errors, incomplete or partly missing sentences. Of course, this does not lessen the value of this comprehensive investigation, which despite its considerable scope, is made available by the publisher at a very fair price. It is to be hoped that the readers of this study will not only be aging church anti-apartheid activists, but also current decision-makers within the Protestant Church in Germany.

Revd Dr Konrad Raiser, former general secretary of the World Council of Churches, is a theologian from Germany and now lives in Berlin.