Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk
The last white President of South Africa died earlier this month. FW de Klerk was the President and leader of the National Party in 1990 and played a pivotal role in releasing Nelson Mandela after 27 years of imprisonment. He also worked with Mandela and others to form a new constitution that formally ended the apartheid system of racial separation and oppression. Nelson Mandela succeeded de Klerk as President in 1994. Yet the true end of apartheid for de Klerk came in a video released days before his death. An excerpt from his final message is the first video posted below. Previously de Klerk refused to apologize and acknowledge that the apartheid system was a crime against humanity. Knowing that his death was near, he made a clear apology stating, “I without qualification apologize for the pain and the hurt and the indignity and the damage that apartheid had done to Black, Brown, and Indians in South Africa.” Some people saw this as a kind of “death bed confession” motivated by his impending death. Others saw it as a late but important act of contrition on the part of a former white leader of the apartheid system. The second video posted below addresses the reality of these different positions. Yet the second video also features the input of a Black South African who knew the horrors of apartheid first hand. For me that lends authority to his view that de Klerk’s apology was significant as a step toward the ongoing work of racial justice and reconciliation in South Africa. De Klerk’s final message also reminded me that our national government has yet to clearly and officially apologize for our own history of racial apartheid through slavery, Jim Crow legal segregation, and the ongoing legacy of racial injustice today. It also reminded me that South Africa established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to face the depth of the sins of apartheid as part of their transition toward interracial democracy. Those of us who believe that God can redeem and heal sins that are acknowledged and confessed have nothing to fear in calling for our country to apologize for our complicity with racial injustice and have our own version of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a way to move forward on the long road of healing and justice for all.