South Africa Beyond Apartheid: En Route to the Promised Land

Abstract

This article offers reflections on the political, ecclesial, and theological contexts of reform in South Africa, with particular reference to the dismantling of apartheid, the justification of violent struggle, white and black racism, and the theology of the land. Complete reconciliation is seen to rest on a restructuring of a society that is just and non-racial. Between the Exodus and the Promised Land lies the Wilderness journey. The Wilderness entails a period of trial and struggle through which we have to journey before we can arrive in the land for which we all hope and pray. How we cope with the experience of the Wilderness will determine whether or not we arrive in the Promised Land: it will also determine the kind of nation we will become.