Beyond Forgiving Screening in Oxford
Ginn Fourie says that if she had met Letlapa Mphahlele within a year of her daughter’s death, she would have tried to kill him. Mphahlele, as Director of Operations of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army, ordered an attack on the Heidelberg Tavern in Cape Town in 1993 in retaliation for the killing of black schoolchildren by the South African army. Fourie’s daughter, Lyndi, was one of the four people killed. Yet on Sunday, 18 May, Fourie and Mphahlele were speaking together at St John’s College, Oxford, at the launching of the Beyond Forgiving tour of the UK.
The event, which included a screening of the new documentary about the two South Africans, Beyond Forgiving, was hosted by Oxpeace in partnership with Initiatives of Change and the Forgiveness Project and drew about a hundred people.
In response to a question from the floor, Fourie described how she gave up ‘her justifiable right for revenge’ and forgave Mphahlele. ‘Two years before Lyndi died I created a mission statement for my life, “to extend God’s grace to each person I meet”. Don’t challenge the Universe if you don’t mean it! It’s the only possible explanation of how I responded. If anyone had told me before it happened that I would embrace my daughter’s killer, I would have said they were mad.’
A Palestinian member of the audience asked how he could forgive when his people were still suffering oppression. In such circumstance, he suggested, forgiveness is weakness. Both speakers insisted that forgiveness does not mean giving up the struggle for justice. ‘When people are oppressed, they must resist,’ said Mphahlele. ‘However, thanks to Ginn, I can say that other forms of resistance could be even more effective than violence.’ He drew a comparison between Gandhi’s non-violent struggle for independence in India and the violent liberation struggle in Algeria during which ten percent of the population died and where violence has persisted. ‘Violence always tends to self-perpetuation.’
The two South Africans spoke of the democratic and economic challenges still facing their country. ‘The political miracle in South Africa was not accompanied by an economic miracle,’ said Mphahlele. ‘Economic power is still in the hands of those who had power in the past. Black economic empowerment left millions untouched. There are people in South Africa who eat cow dung to survive.’
Referring to Oxford’s links with the 19th century colonialist, Cecil John Rhodes, Mphahlele commented, ‘As Africans from the southern end of the continent, we were at the receiving end of Cecil John Rhodes. The privilege enjoyed here was to the detriment of colonised peoples.’ Relationships between the West and Africa today still show relics of colonialism, he continued. ‘Financial and trade imperialism make us Africans feel that we are not full citizens of this global village. There is a huge need for the realignment of relations.’
A South African asked whether their story was being heard back home. Fourie and Mphahlele replied that they had had many invitations to speak, and had been featured on national TV. But, they stressed, theirs was one of many similar stories.
The Beyond Forgiving tour continues in London, Bradford, Liverpool, Durham and Belfast.
To learn more about Ginn Fourie and Letlapa Mphahlele's story you can read Michael Henderson's book No Enemy to Conquer which is available from Amazon (also a Kindle version). For a link on his website click here.
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