Calling Catholic Anti-Apartheid Activists for New Book

by Admin · September 25, 2024

Fr Buti Tlhagale OMI, now archbishop of Johannesburg leads mourners from the Regina Mundi Church, seen in the background, to Avalon cemetery for a victim of the June 16 1976 rebellion

By Judy Stockill – Sisters for Justice have initiated a writing project to collect the stories of lay Catholics involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. The project, called “Lest we Forget”, aims to record the stories of the people active in opposing apartheid, document the nature of their involvement, and honour their contribution towards a democratic South Africa.

“Lest we Forget” is an open-ended project which will progress online, one activist at a time, and culminate in a book or books which will both honour these ancestors in faith and be an inspiration for future struggles for justice. Archbishop Buti, himself an anti-apartheid activist, has approved the project and suggested names of people for inclusion. To contain the size of the project only lay Catholics of wider Gauteng will be included and the research will begin with older activists.

Top right: A political rally at Regina Mundi Church in 1982

Many, many lay Catholics worked actively to oppose apartheid. Their stories will be lost if they are not recorded. Even now many have passed on and many more are elderly. The youth who protested the Group Areas Act and the brutal forced removals of the 1950’s are in their eighties now. Even their children who have heard their stories are aging.

Sisters for Justice, a group of religious women who were themselves anti-apartheid activists and who still meet to further the cause of justice, will lead the project. Many of the lay Catholic activists were and still are their friends. The families and friends of the all the women religious and clergy who opposed apartheid were drawn into the struggle. Together they taught in illegal schools, trained and helped workers to unionize, supported the families of detainees and gave succour to party political activists.

These lay activists were motivated by their faith, believing that all are created in the image of God and deserving of human dignity.

The Church lent its support to the struggle with pastoral letters on matters of social justice, calling apartheid ‘intrinsically evil’, establishing Justice and Peace Commissions; running awareness campaigns and calling conferences to seek ways to bring about a just society.

If you have a story to tell – your own or the story of someone close to you – or if you would like to be involved in the “Lest we Forget” project, please send an e-mail to Sr Brigid Rose Tiernan SND at .