Reflections on a river, a rainbow, repentance and restitution

 

A personal reflection…

Thursday, 16th June 2022 was annual Youth Day in South Africa. I never got around to writing this story at the time, but I am glad I stored some thoughts on paper. And now we have just passed the 16th Dec which is Reconciliation Day in South Africa. Somehow I am glad I waited as the 2 annual reminders/memorial days kind of work together for this blog.

What I did write down was a bit of a jumble, so I hope to make some sense of it now. This was also within a day or so of Day Zero in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape on the back of a terrible drought with our dams emptying down to the last trickles of water, and communal taps already installed in anticipation of our taps running dry. It didn’t happen then, and at the 2nd time of writing just over a month later (July), it hadn’t happened yet, but it really could happen any day if rain doesn’t fall in our catchment areas. To add onto this, it is now 6 months later (Dec) and we still have not reached Day Zero, but it looms large as a potential event as our rainfall has been so erratic and not nearly enough, and yet bits of consistency has kept that total ‘run dry’ day at bay.

So, on Wed 15th June 2022, the heavens  opened with heavy rain, it was freezing cold and we had the most brilliant, massive, double rainbow over our City in the afternoon. I saw it out of the window and rushed outside to try and capture a photo. I did manage to take a few, but only of about half each time. Had I had time and a higher vantage point, I may have been able to capture the vastness and brilliance of it. Many people took photos that afternoon.

The rainbow always seems to hold out hope and promise. I know the first one was after the great flood in Noah’s time where God said he would never flood the earth like that again. So often a rainbow appears and the next thing the heavens open, which is what happened on that Wednesday. None of us want a flood, but we almost need some level of flooding to break this drought and fill our dams. There seems to also be a pattern of droughts broken by floods in this region.

I noticed the jokes around this time about our City’s name change from Port Elizabeth to Gqeberha. People were saying the rain doesn’t know where to fall. It saddened me. I had wanted to repost a blog I wrote on Heritage Day 2021 to remind people that pulling against name changes, pulls against national unity.

I was also thinking of the meaning of the name – it’s named after the Baakens River. On Google it says – the river that FLOWS through the City.

I had thought what if it’s got some meaning connected to breaking this drought? To trust God for it to FLOW STRONGLY again?

I was reading a daily devotional from Jeremiah 17 and was blown away with verses 7 and 8.
These verses were applicable in June, and still applicable for right now.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
That sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when the heat comes; its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in the year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.

We know many plans are being put in place in our City for water provision – communal taps, tankers, bore-holes, fixing leaks, water saving plans, personal water tanks etc, and even more has happened with various other initiatives since I wrote about this a month ago, and even more 6 months down the line. We need these things in place, BUT we continue to trust in God. And we have continued to have some unseasonal downpours, some just a few days ago. (Dec)

Some interesting excerpts from an article written for the Herald by Guy Rogers in 2017, entitled, “The Baakens like you’ve never seen it before,” has this to say:
The whole Baakens River valley let’s the metro breathe. It’s a ‘green lung’ that, through its plants and trees, absorbs carbon dioxide and generates oxygen, alleviating urban smog and countering climate change.

The river brings value to the whole metro!

The earliest visitors to the area were the Southern Khoe people from the Damasqua and Gonaqua clans. Many of the names they gave the area reflect their association with the Baakens, names like ‘sweet water’ and ‘abundance of reeds.’ It is because of them being first people’s to the area that the honour was bestowed, to name the City after the name they, along with the Xhosa people, gave to the Baakens River.

Rainbows always elicit excitement and the one on that Wed certainly did that. Interesting that the promise it carries is to never flood the earth again to the extent of the flood in Noah’s time. It is a covenant of renewal and starting again. It carries protection, hope and promise.

My mind wandered a bit to fathom what could need renewal and starting over again?
What hope and promise do we need for Gqeberha, for South Africa?

Is there a legacy to reflect on here? An inheritance? I cannot think of a bigger over arching issue that has caused such long lasting damage than Apartheid. I saw a comment recently that calls Apartheid a brutal inheritance and that a legacy, according to the Oxford Dictionary,  is long lasting impacts of particular events, actions that took place in the past, and these can be negative or positive. The ‘lasting impacts’ part is what captures my attention. The past has long arms that reach forward into the future.  There are for sure lasting negative impacts from Apartheid that should not be ignored, and if they are I believe we will never truly move forward peacefully in our land. Land was literally taken from under people’s feet. Land that belonged to them. There were people living near the Baakens River, people who named it and these people were chased away, far away! Other people in the City and across South Africa had homes in certain places and they were forcibly removed and also moved far away from City centres. This land, these homes were then taken over by other people who somehow had come to the conclusion that this was now their land, their homes, their neighborhood, including the shops, schools, hospitals, public recreation spaces and places of worship.  (And no compensation was given for what was taken, even to this day very little has been done in this regard, and where it has, it has been well below what should have been given back.) I have been reading ‘The lie of 1652’ by Patric Tariq Mellet over this last year, which has been super helpful in shedding light onto a decolonised history of land.

So when the Day of Reconciliation came around this year, I noticed, surprisingly so, that on the news and streets of social media there was relative quiet. There was one person I noticed reflecting back on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the horror stories that were shared there and calling us to not forget and that financial restitution still needs our attention.

I remember back to June and the rainbow and now wondering about repentance, because when there’s a bad drought, that word often rears it’s head. Some people felt there were some spiritual acts of others that needed to be repented of before the drought would be broken. My mind had taken me to repentance of a different kind, a corporate repentance for Apartheid and it’s lasting impacts. At the time I had seen someone writing about corporate repentance, as so often many Christians function within personal repentance only, and many people feel that if they did not, in person, physically or emotionally inflict the pain of Apartheid on someone, that they were now exempt, and chose phrases like “let’s just move on, and get on with life and living" and/or "why do I have to say I am sorry if I wasn't even alive then?” But I believe corporate repentance for actions in the past and the present is a thing. In the Bible we have some examples like the sin of Achan in Joshua 7:1where all Israelites were seen to have acted sinfully from one man’s actions, Daniels prayer of repentance on behalf of Israel and Jesus absolutely died for the sins of the whole world, which in turn invites repentance from all, over all time. In South Africa a group of people chose a certain way and got others to choose it with them and it then travelled down many, many generations to still be functioning today, albeit now no longer within a formal and legal framework. It still lives strongly in too many hearts and minds. We need to stop ignoring this and to start talking about it. We don’t need to be oblivious. We don’t have to stay blind. We really can wake up to what happened and look to what can be done to create a new and better future for all.

We cannot keep saying ‘those were the days my friend. It was so clean, safe and ordered.’ (Some of this commentary comes from a recent Facebook post.) Behind the scenes of that ‘peace’ was a violent and corrupt Government destroying the peace, safety and belonging of a group of people, removing them from land that was theirs, restricting people’s movements, keeping us all apart and killing people. In the name of what? Was it control, power, greed and fear and/or we are better than you and we deserve more land, space, jobs, beaches, electricity, water, schools, medical help, shops, food, money, travel, sport, houses etc. It sounds ludicrous to write all that. It was ugly for sure and many lies were told along the way, lies we believed and acted on. This legacy still lives on. Sure, there have been some fundamental changes, but not enough to right those wrongs. Not enough at all! And what a slap in the face when comments like, ‘we long for those good old days!’ Good for who?

Take a few moments to breathe, think and be silent. Take it all in. Lean in and continue to listen. (We know anger, defensiveness and retaliation can rise up.) Listen to understand that those emotional reactions were surely present among people who had everything violently taken and stripped from them and then had their every movement controlled, family members ripped apart, all decent and nice things taken away. Human dignity destroyed. Left with fetching water in a bucket from a communal spot, not allowed to attend certain schools, universities, shops and movie theatres. Jobs kept aside for certain people, earning capacity very limited, not enough money for food. Not allowed in certain public spaces, toilets and beaches. It makes me sad to type these words. And then we have the cheek to think we are now being oppressed when attempts are made to try and level the playing fields after all the wreckage that was done!! Oh how we need to draw from the generosity of our God and apply that character quality to the here and now in a kingdom response in being generous with our repentance and ask for forgiveness and seek to bring about the restitution so desperately needed.

We also need to do the work of undoing the propaganda pathways that are stuck in brains and hearts. We were all sold the same rubbish, we breathed the same poisonous air and it does not go away on its own. It takes time. It takes work to undo and replace wrong thinking and patterns of behaviour. We have to want it. It’s a personal journey that no-one but we ourselves can do, as it’s our brains and our hearts. But it’s possible. It will be a hope filled and life giving journey. Jesus came to bring life and life in abundance. Let’s take that seriously.

Saying ‘that was wrong!’ or ‘I am so sorry.’ What do we lose in that moment? To me we gain so much more. To acknowledge someone’s painful past. To be present in that moment. To see them. Powerful!! We generally do quite a good job acknowledging painful times, like death or trauma, and we say ‘I am so sorry for your loss or pain.’ Did we personally inflict the pain on the person in those times or were we responsible for the death of their loved one, and yet we are happy to stand with and acknowledge in those times. Why not the same for all trauma, pain and loss? Apartheid certainly created all 3. There is often energy created around a death and funeral. People offer to make meals, give lifts, listen, be there, offer presence. The phrase ‘how can I help/what can I do?’ is often heard. The same energy is needed here. What can we do now? (There are so many resources available, one good starting point could be ‘Another Country’ a book by Sharlene Swartz where she delves into what everyday social restitution can look like.)

Unless we acknowledge our part, we will not be able to begin to undo the ways we have contributed to or continue to contribute to harming others. In Sharlene’s book she helps people to find themselves in the story - what part they may have played, or might still be playing.

It will take humility - another character quality of Jesus.

Some people were physically involved in enacting injustice in Apartheid times, but maybe our part could have been obliviousness, then we can wake up. Maybe it was silence, then we can speak up. Maybe it was allowing things to carry on (then and now), to keep the status quo, then we need to learn how to stop it. Read. Listen to the stories of those who have, and still do experience injustice. Have some deep, critical and maybe uncomfortable conversations. But do the work. We need to get active in fighting back against injustice. We cannot be passive. It will keep perpetuating itself over and over again. (We have yet another unacceptable and awful December holiday racist incident that proves this point. It’s clearly not over and we really do have the power in our hearts, heads and hands to bring about the necessary change.)

I know there is much going on in South Africa that’s not ok. Let’s not allow that to distract us from this vital conversation about what we need to do in regards to the past (and present) when it comes to addressing what Apartheid did and continues to do.

We serve a generous God. How are we being generous with repentance and forgiveness? Are we longing for unity? Are we desperate enough to see change in our country? Are we willing to realize that it could start with me? In Ephesians 1 we see how God gives us everything we need for unity by lavishing every spiritual blessing on us to bring all things in heaven and earth together under Christ. In Philippians 2 he calls us to be imitators of Him - being humble, considering others better than ourselves, looking to the interests of others, being a servant to others. It is all possible with Christ as our example. His lavish grace is sufficient for all our needs. We don’t need to do this alone, but we do need to be obedient to the call of the cross, sacrifice to the point of death. He calls us to give our all. We want the strong flow of God’s Spirit to flow in and through us, and I believe as we do that, as we live in obedience to what he requires of us, to experience on earth as it is in heaven, that our rivers will flow strongly again too. If my people, who are called by my name (Ephesians 1:4) will humble themselves (Philippians 2:3)and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways (repent from our past actions in this land), then will I hear from heaven and heal their land. Let justice flow like a strong and mighty river. Let us see the redemption of our God in this beautiful land of ours.