Steve Hayes
2010-06-25 03:28:58 UTC
Jun 20, 1:04 PM EDT
Nico Smith, white anti-apartheid cleric who lived in black township,
dies at 81
Those who knew Nico may be interested in a memoir and some pictures taken atNico Smith, white anti-apartheid cleric who lived in black township,
dies at 81
his funeral on my blog at:
http://khanya.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/in-memoriam-nico-smith/
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_OBIT_ANTI_APARTHEID_CLERIC
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- The Rev. Nico Smith, a white pastor who challenged
South Africa's apartheid system by moving with his wife into a black
township in the 1980s, has died of a heart attack, one of his daughters
said Sunday. He was 81.
Smith collapsed while attending a friend's birthday party Saturday in
Pretoria, and died before he could be taken to a hospital, said Marita
Laubscher, the eldest of his three daughters.
In the tumultuous '80s, Smith was one of a tiny handful of clerics who
left the white Dutch Reformed Church - the largest denomination among
the Afrikaners who then held political power - because of the church's
refusal to actively oppose apartheid. Smith instead joined the
denomination's black offspring.
Smith, who had been a missionary in the far north of South Africa and
later a theology professor at the University of Stellenbosch, began
preaching in Mamelodi, the main black township outside Pretoria, in 1982.
He moved there to live a few years later, along with his wife, Ellen, a
child psychiatrist. They were the first whites officially permitted by
the government to live in a black township in an era where apartheid
laws rigorously segregated residential areas, schools, hospitals and
public amenities.
In 1988, Smith was one of the principal organizers of what at the time
was an unprecedented experiment in trading places. About 170 whites
lived in Mamelodi for four days, sharing cornmeal dinners, outside
toilets, and middle-of-the-night visits from the police.
At the time, few whites knew firsthand how blacks lived because they
seldom ventured into the townships located on the periphery of the cities.
Laubscher, in a telephone interview, said her father was dedicated to
the goal of racial reconciliation in South Africa, which dismantled
apartheid in the early 1990s.
"His sense of justice was what drove him to feel that all people should
have access to opportunities," she said. "He felt, as a Christian, how
could he be part of a church if not all people could be considered human."
Smith's funeral is scheduled for Thursday at a church in Pretoria where
he and his colleagues helped build a multiracial congregation.
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_OBIT_ANTI_APARTHEID_CLERIC
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- The Rev. Nico Smith, a white pastor who challenged
South Africa's apartheid system by moving with his wife into a black
township in the 1980s, has died of a heart attack, one of his daughters
said Sunday. He was 81.
Smith collapsed while attending a friend's birthday party Saturday in
Pretoria, and died before he could be taken to a hospital, said Marita
Laubscher, the eldest of his three daughters.
In the tumultuous '80s, Smith was one of a tiny handful of clerics who
left the white Dutch Reformed Church - the largest denomination among
the Afrikaners who then held political power - because of the church's
refusal to actively oppose apartheid. Smith instead joined the
denomination's black offspring.
Smith, who had been a missionary in the far north of South Africa and
later a theology professor at the University of Stellenbosch, began
preaching in Mamelodi, the main black township outside Pretoria, in 1982.
He moved there to live a few years later, along with his wife, Ellen, a
child psychiatrist. They were the first whites officially permitted by
the government to live in a black township in an era where apartheid
laws rigorously segregated residential areas, schools, hospitals and
public amenities.
In 1988, Smith was one of the principal organizers of what at the time
was an unprecedented experiment in trading places. About 170 whites
lived in Mamelodi for four days, sharing cornmeal dinners, outside
toilets, and middle-of-the-night visits from the police.
At the time, few whites knew firsthand how blacks lived because they
seldom ventured into the townships located on the periphery of the cities.
Laubscher, in a telephone interview, said her father was dedicated to
the goal of racial reconciliation in South Africa, which dismantled
apartheid in the early 1990s.
"His sense of justice was what drove him to feel that all people should
have access to opportunities," she said. "He felt, as a Christian, how
could he be part of a church if not all people could be considered human."
Smith's funeral is scheduled for Thursday at a church in Pretoria where
he and his colleagues helped build a multiracial congregation.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk