by Judith Kusel
https://www.judithkusel.com/
As Librarian and archivist in the Apartheid years, I had to read through all the colonial papers and as I was working on a Anglo-Boer Battle Field, and the area was filled with Anglo-Zulu War battlefields as well, I had to read through military papers as well.
With this Gandhi, who later led India, lived in this very area, and led from here, the protests for freedom, and we had his papers as well. It was very interesting to read about and as well as read his own writings, the young Gandhi, who then never knew where he would one day end up, leading a whole nation.
Many people believe that Apartheid had its roots in the South African government, after these wars, and in the Union of South Africa. Not so, the original apartheid laws, were created within the British colonial system and were far stricter during colonial times.
There was a Trappist monastery in Marian Hill, led by monks from Austria who had taken the vow of silence. They were the very first to educate the Zulus. However, they were in constant battle against the colonial rulership, who did wanted to keep the Black people from being able to read and write and educate themselves. They closed their schools time and again.
I once stood with my father, uncle and brother, at the Isandlwana Battle Field, British suffered the biggest defeat ever, and there was an old Zulu Induna, who was standing at the memorial and now rendered his own account of what had happened there, in Zulu. Like all the Zulu people, he weaved this story in circular fashion, and I could hear those of his ilk, answering: “Yebo baba! And so it is!” When the Zulus tell stories, they do so from their heart and soul, and even their bodies talk! It was a very different story which emerged, from the recorded history recorded in the history books.
Fast forward, and the same Trappist monks had a monastery near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal, and ministering to the rural Zulu tribes who lived there. During the apartheid years, Mrs. Sheila Henderson, the doyen of the Natal Museums and wife of Senator Henderson, who had a farm in that area, told me, how during the apartheid years, the army moved in and they forcefully moved the tribes off their tribal lands.
While this was happening, the Trappist silently stood, lining the road, praying and the Head of the monastery said to the officer in charge: “You are forcing these people off their land, but the time will come, when they will all return, and our bells will ring again.”
South Africa ended up on the brink of a civil war, when a certain Nelson Mandela was freed, and united a nation.
Said, Mrs. Henderson, we missed those bells, and indeed, now they are ringing again, the tribes have returned, the monastery has been renovated after falling to pieces as no one lived there anymore, and is now a hospice, and mission station, for the Franciscan nuns! The church has such incredible acoustics and energy and was built in total silence. I was privilege to listen to Franz Schubert’s “Deutsche Messe” there performed by the Regensburg Boys Choir who were visiting South Africa with their Bishop. It was out of this world!
Yes we have been through so much here in South Africa, but through it all, the soul of the people prevail, and so it is in the rest of the world. When we truly are challenged, we can stand together as one, for in truth we are all one family, as the very soul of Africa lives within all of us too!
And so it is in the everywhere, not just here.
Even the most powerful structures on earth, which seemingly are invincible, have their foundations on shifting sands. Empires have come and gone, and now, yes, now, finally, the Divine Masterplan comes into fulfillment.
For, it is time for the new arise from ashes of the old, and the new humanity, who share one vision, one calling, one soul and one heart, and where all life and life forms, live together as one, for in truth we always were one, and always are one – the rest is illusion.
I have always loved history, for it shows you the patterns, and where our deepest woundedness lies, and where we need to dissolve the wounds, in order to finally heal and create new holistic beginnings.
Just musing!
Judith 