Faith & Community
Landmark
Beyers Naudé
1915 – 2004
The Afrikaner cleric who turned against apartheid
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the South Africa Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A Dutch Reformed minister and Broederbond member who concluded apartheid was a heresy, said so, and was banned for seven years by his own people.
Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé was as deep inside Afrikaner nationalism as a person could be: named after a Boer general, son of a founding member of the Afrikaner Broederbond, initiated into the Broederbond himself at twenty-four, and rising to be moderator of the Southern Transvaal synod of the Dutch Reformed Church — the church that supplied apartheid with its theological justification.
Sharpeville in 1960 broke it. At the Cottesloe consultation that followed, church delegates rejected the scriptural case for racial separation; the church then repudiated Cottesloe under government pressure. Naudé concluded that his church was preaching a heresy, founded the Christian Institute in 1963 to work across racial and denominational lines, and was told to choose between it and his congregation. He preached a final sermon on Acts — that one must obey God rather than men — took off his robes, and walked out.
He lost his standing, his income and most of his community. In 1977 the government banned him: seven years confined to his magisterial district, forbidden to be with more than one person at a time, forbidden to be quoted. When the ban lifted in 1984 he succeeded Desmond Tutu as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, and he was one of the handful of Afrikaners the ANC would meet during the years of talks about talks.
He was given a state funeral in 2004, and the road that used to carry D. F. Malan's name in Johannesburg now carries his.
Sharpeville in 1960 broke it. At the Cottesloe consultation that followed, church delegates rejected the scriptural case for racial separation; the church then repudiated Cottesloe under government pressure. Naudé concluded that his church was preaching a heresy, founded the Christian Institute in 1963 to work across racial and denominational lines, and was told to choose between it and his congregation. He preached a final sermon on Acts — that one must obey God rather than men — took off his robes, and walked out.
He lost his standing, his income and most of his community. In 1977 the government banned him: seven years confined to his magisterial district, forbidden to be with more than one person at a time, forbidden to be quoted. When the ban lifted in 1984 he succeeded Desmond Tutu as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, and he was one of the handful of Afrikaners the ANC would meet during the years of talks about talks.
He was given a state funeral in 2004, and the road that used to carry D. F. Malan's name in Johannesburg now carries his.
Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will check it.