Beyers Naudé
Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé (10 May 1915 – 7 September 2004) was a South African Afrikaner Calvinist Dominee, theologian and the leading Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist.[1] He was known simply as Beyers Naudé, or more colloquially, Oom Bey (Afrikaans for "Uncle Bey").
Beyers Naudé
10 May 1915
7 September 2004 (aged 89)
Beyers Naudé, Oom Bey (Afrikaans for "Uncle Bey")
Cleric
Ilse Hedwig Weder
Jozua François Naudé and Adriana Johanna Zondagh van Huyssteen
Early life and education[edit]
One of eight children, Beyers Naudé was born to Jozua François Naudé and Adriana Johanna Naudé (née) van Huyssteen in Roodepoort, Transvaal (now Gauteng). The progenitor of the Naudé name was a French Huguenot refugee named Jacques Naudé who arrived in the Cape in 1718.[2] The Naudé surname is one of numerous French surnames that retained their original spelling in South Africa. Beyers Naudé was named after General Christiaan Frederick Beyers, under whom his father had served as a soldier and unofficial military chaplain during the second Anglo-Boer War.[3]
Jozua Naudé, an Afrikaner Calvinist minister,or "Dominee", "was convinced that the British would never leave."[4] He helped to found[5] the Broederbond (Afrikaans, "Brotherhood" or "League of Brothers"),[1] the powerful Afrikaner Calvinist men's secret society that played a dominant role in South Africa under apartheid. The Broederbond became especially synonymous with the Afrikaner-dominated National Party that won power in 1948 and implemented the racial segregation policy of apartheid. The elder Naudé also helped produce the earliest translations of the Bible into the newly standardized language of Afrikaans.[5]
In 1921, the Naudé family moved to the Cape Province town of Graaff-Reinet, in the Karoo region. Beyers Naudé attended Afrikaans Hoërskool [Afrikaans High School], matriculating in 1931.[3][6] Naudé studied theology at the University of Stellenbosch and lived at Wilgenhof men's residence. He graduated in 1939 with an MA in languages and a theology degree.[1] His sociology lecturer was the future prime minister and chief-architect of apartheid, H. F. Verwoerd.[4][7] But Naudé credited Stellenbosch theologian Ben Keet with laying the groundwork for his own theological dissent.[7]
Naudé was ordained in 1939 as a minister in the South African Dutch Reformed Church and joined the Broederbond as its youngest member. For 20 years he served various congregations,[8] starting at Wellington in Western Cape Province (1940–1942), Loxton (1942–1945), Pretoria - South-Olifantsfontein (1945–1949), Pretoria East (1945–1954), Potchefstroom (1954–1959) and Aasvoëlkop (Johannesburg) (1959–1963) preaching a religious justification for apartheid.[1] On 3 August 1940 Naudé married Ilse Weder, whose father had been a Moravian missionary.[3] The couple had three sons and a daughter.[6]
Post-apartheid influence[edit]
After 1990 Naudé occasionally opened ANC events with scripture readings.[7] That same year he was invited by the African National Congress to be the only Afrikaner member on their delegation in negotiations with the National Party government at Groote Schuur. Despite his long association with the African National Congress, Naudé never actually joined the party.[7] Some have speculated that this, along with his advanced age and constant ill health during the last few years of his life, caused him to be politically sidelined. Others conclude that Naudé harbored a fierce independence and never sought personal advancement. Despite his association with the ANC, for instance, he also maintained ties with the black consciousness movement and the Pan Africanist Congress.[5]
In 2000 he signed the Declaration of Commitment by White South Africans, a public document that acknowledged that apartheid had damaged black South Africans.[7]
After his death at 89 on 7 September 2004, Nelson Mandela eulogized Naudé as "a true humanitarian and a true son of Africa."[18] Naudé's official state funeral on Saturday 18 September 2004 was attended by President Thabo Mbeki, other dignitaries, and high-ranking ANC officials. Naudé's ashes were scattered in the township of Alexandra, just outside Johannesburg. He was survived by his wife, four children, and two great-grandchildren.[3][4]
Despite being persecuted by his own ethnic group, Naudé "never outwardly expressed spite for his former opponents. 'I am an Afrikaner,' he said. 'I saw myself never as anything else but an Afrikaner, and I'm very grateful for the small contribution which I could have made.'"[4]
Honors and accolades[edit]
During his life Naudé received several honors, including the Bruno Kreisky Award for services to human rights (Austria, 1979)[1], the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award (USA, 1984)[2], the African American Institute Award (USA, 1985), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award (USA, 1985) along with Allan Boesak and Winnie Mandela,[19] the Swedish Labour Movement Award (Sweden, 1988), the Order of Oranje-Nassau (Netherlands, 1995), Order for Meritorious Service (Gold) (South Africa, 1997), and the Order of Merit (Germany, 1999).[17]
Naudé received fourteen honorary doctorates during his lifetime[6] and in 1993 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee.[20]
Legacy[edit]
In 2001 the city of Johannesburg, where he had lived most of his life in the suburb of Greenside, honored Naudé in several ways. Naudé received the Freedom of the City of Johannesburg while DF Malan Drive, a major road in Johannesburg, was renamed Beyers Naudé Drive. The Library Gardens in downtown Johannesburg, formerly known as Market Square, were renamed as Beyers Naudé Square.[21]
In 2004 Naudé was voted 36th among Top 100 Great South Africans in an informal poll conducted by a television program of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Naudé was called "one of the true Christian prophets of our time" by the acting secretary of the World Council of Churches, Georges Lemopoulos.[12] Naudé's comments after the 1976 Soweto uprising presciently anticipated an outflow of South Africans in the post-apartheid era. He warned that white privilege could not and should not endure.[7]
"For many it will be impossible to live in this new South African society; they will be destroyed physically, emotionally and psychologically. They would be allowed to stay, but they would find the atmosphere unacceptable and therefore many will say, "we cannot adjust, we must go.""[10]
The University of the Free State changed the name of one of its hostels (JBM Hertzog) to Beyers Naudé.[22] In Leeuwarden, Netherlands, the local Christian gymnasium (a middle school comparable to a grammar school) was renamed in honour of Beyers Naudé.[23]
In the year 2002 a school in Soweto was named after him (Dr Beyers Naude high school.
