Beyers Naudé
Encyclopedia
Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé (10 May 1915 – 7 September 2004) was a South Africa
n cleric, theologian
and the leading Afrikaner
anti-apartheid activist. He was known simply as Beyers Naudé, or more colloquially, Oom Bey (Afrikaans, Mister Bey).
(now Gauteng
). The progenitor of the Naudé name was a French Huguenot refugee named Jacques Naudé who arrived in the Cape in 1718. The Naudé surname is one of numerous French surnames which retained their original spelling in South Africa. Beyers Naudé was named for General Christiaan Frederick Beyers, under whom his father had served as a soldier and unofficial pastor during the second Anglo-Boer War
.
Jozua Naudé, an Afrikaner cleric, "was convinced that the British would never leave." He helped found and was the first chairperson of the Broederbond (Afrikaans, "Brotherhood" or "League of Brothers"), a powerful Afrikaner male secret society which played a dominant role in apartheid South Africa. 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 with the earliest translations of the Bible into Afrikaans.
The Naudé family moved in 1921 to the Cape
province town of Graaff-Reinet, in the Karoo region. Beyers Naudé attended Afrikaans Hoërskool [Afrikaans High School], matriculating in 1931. Naudé studied theology at the University of Stellenbosch
and reportedly lived at Wilgenhof men's residence. He graduated in 1939 with an MA in languages and a theology degree. His sociology lecturer was the future prime minister and chief-architect of apartheid, H.F. Verwoerd. But Naudé credited Stellenbosch theologian Ben Keet with laying the groundwork for his own theological dissent.
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 , 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. On 3 August 1940 Naudé married Ilse Weder, whose father had been a Moravian missionary. The couple had three sons and a daughter. He began to doubt this justification after attending interracial church services in the 1950s. [reference?]
in 1960 (during which the South African police killed 69 black demonstrators protesting against restrictions on their freedom of movement) ended his support for his church's political teachings. In the three decades after his resignation from the denomination, Naudé's vocal support for racial reconciliation and equal rights led to upheavals in the Dutch Reformed Church.
(WCC) sent a delegation to Johannesburg to meet with clerics. Naudé, by then the moderator of his church district (the Southern Transvaal Synod), helped to organize a consultation between the WCC and eighty South African church delegates in Cottesloe, a Johannesburg suburb. The consultation's resolutions rejected race as the basis of exclusion from churches, and affirmed the right of all people to own land and have a say in how they are governed. Naudé alone among his church's delegates steadfastly continued to reject any theological basis for apartheid after Prime Minister Verwoerd forced the DRC delegation to repudiate the consultation. The Dutch Reformed Church later left the World Council of Churches.
In 1963 Naudé founded the Christian Institute of Southern Africa
(CI), an ecumenical organization with the aim of fostering reconciliation through interracial dialogue, research, and publications. The DRC forced Naudé to choose between his status as minister and directorship of the CI. He then resigned his church post, left his Aasvoëlkop congregation in Northcliff, Johannesburg, and resigned from the Broederbond in 1963. As a result, he lost his status as minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. His last sermon to his congregation noted that "We must show greater loyalty to God than to man". Stoically anticipating the enormous pressure by the Afrikaner political and church establishment that was to come, he told his wife: "We must prepare for ten years in the wilderness." Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu later said " 'Beyers became a leper in the Afrikaner community.' "
During the same year Naudé was blamed for leaking documents about the Broederbond to the press, although the culprit later turned out to be University of the Witwatersrand New Testament scholar Albert S. Geyser. Naudé had given the documents to Geyser to evaluate the extent of the influence of the Broederbond on the church. Without his knowledge, Geyser then provided the information to a journalist. In 1967 Naudé and Geyser won a libel case against a conservative Pretoria professor, A.P. Punt, who had called them communists.
In 1970 Naudé was among few white South African Christian leaders "who openly called for understanding of the WCC decision" to provide financial support for liberation movements in southern Africa. "If blood runs in the streets of South Africa it will not be because the World Council of Churches has done something but because the churches of South Africa have done nothing," Naudé said. In response, the state formed the Schlebusch Commission
in 1972 to investigate anti-apartheid Christian organizations. When Naudé refused to testify, he was tried and imprisoned. After a night in the cells, a DRC minister paid his fine.
During a 1972 trip to Germany and Britain, Naudé preached at Westminster Abbey, "the first Afrikaans theologian to be so honoured". In 1973 the state withdrew his passport, but temporarily returned it in 1974 so that he could travel to the University of Notre Dame, Chicago, to receive the Reinhold Niebuhr Award for justice and peace.
As the CI increasingly incorporated black African radicals like Steve Biko
, Naudé had to bear the brunt of harassment by the state security police. The state eventually forced the CI to close in 1977.
, Cedric Mayson, and Peter Randall
. Although under constant police surveillance, Naudé managed to secretly help anti-apartheid resistors move around and out of South Africa by providing them with old vehicles that he had repaired himself. He later joked that this was "My small contribution to a struggle I knew was right." His ANC liaison was Sydney Mufamadi
, who became Minister of Provincial and Local Government in the post-apartheid government.
In 1980 Naudé and three other DRC theologians broke with the DRC and was accepted as clergy by the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa, the black African denomination established by the white Dutch Reformed Church.
After his unbanning in 1985, he succeeded Archbishop Desmond Tutu
as secretary general of the South African Council of Churches
. In this role he called for the release of political prisoners (especially Nelson Mandela) and negotiation with the African National Congress. In 1987 the apartheid regime outlawed public pleas for the release of detainees. But Naudé pressed Christians to continue to publicly pray for detainees, despite government threats of imprisonment.
After his term at the South African Council of Churches ended, Naudé continued to serve a number of anti-apartheid and development organizations, including the South African Legal Defence and Aid Fund, the Ecumenical Service for Socio-Economic Transformation, Kagiso Trust, and the Editorial Board of Challenge Magazine.
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. 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.
In 2000 he signed the Declaration of Commitment by White South Africans, a public document that acknowledged that apartheid had damaged black South Africans.
After his death at 89 on 7 September 2004, Nelson Mandela eulogized Naudé as "a true humanitarian and a true son of Africa." 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 is survived by his wife, four children, and two great-grandchildren.
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.'"
(USA, 1985), 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).
In 1993 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
by the American Friends Service Committee
.
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 also bears his name.
Naudé received fourteen honorary doctorates during his lifetime.
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. 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.
"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."
Beyers Naude taught people the true message of justice. His deeply held Christian faith underpinned everything he did and he was fearless and unequivocal in standing up against cruelty and injustice.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n cleric, theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and the leading Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
anti-apartheid activist. He was known simply as Beyers Naudé, or more colloquially, Oom Bey (Afrikaans, Mister Bey).
Family background and early life
One of eight children, Beyers Naudé was born to Jozua François Naudé and Adriana Johanna Naude (nee) van Huysteen in Roodepoort, TransvaalTransvaal Province
Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...
(now Gauteng
Gauteng
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...
). The progenitor of the Naudé name was a French Huguenot refugee named Jacques Naudé who arrived in the Cape in 1718. The Naudé surname is one of numerous French surnames which retained their original spelling in South Africa. Beyers Naudé was named for General Christiaan Frederick Beyers, under whom his father had served as a soldier and unofficial pastor during the second Anglo-Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
.
Jozua Naudé, an Afrikaner cleric, "was convinced that the British would never leave." He helped found and was the first chairperson of the Broederbond (Afrikaans, "Brotherhood" or "League of Brothers"), a powerful Afrikaner male secret society which played a dominant role in apartheid South Africa. The Broederbond became especially synonymous with the Afrikaner-dominated National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
that won power in 1948 and implemented the racial segregation policy of apartheid. The elder Naudé also helped with the earliest translations of the Bible into Afrikaans.
The Naudé family moved in 1921 to the Cape
Cape
Cape can be used to describe any sleeveless outer garment, such as a poncho, but usually it is a long garment that covers only the back half of the wearer, fastening around the neck. They were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon, and have had periodic...
province town of Graaff-Reinet, in the Karoo region. Beyers Naudé attended Afrikaans Hoërskool [Afrikaans High School], matriculating in 1931. Naudé studied theology at the University of Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Other nearby universities are the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape....
and reportedly lived at Wilgenhof men's residence. He graduated in 1939 with an MA in languages and a theology degree. His sociology lecturer was the future prime minister and chief-architect of apartheid, H.F. Verwoerd. But Naudé credited Stellenbosch theologian Ben Keet with laying the groundwork for his own theological dissent.
Naudé was ordained in 1939 as a minister in the South African Dutch Reformed Church
Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
and joined the Broederbond as its youngest member. For 20 years he served various congregations , starting at Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
in Western Cape Province (1940-1942), Loxton (1942-1945), Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
- South-Olifantsfontein (1945-1949), Pretoria East (1945-1954), Potchefstroom (1954-1959) and Aasvoëlkop (Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
) (1959-1963) preaching a religious justification for apartheid. On 3 August 1940 Naudé married Ilse Weder, whose father had been a Moravian missionary. The couple had three sons and a daughter. He began to doubt this justification after attending interracial church services in the 1950s. [reference?]
Anti-apartheid activities
The Sharpeville massacreSharpeville massacre
The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal . After a day of demonstrations, at which a crowd of black protesters far outnumbered the police, the South African police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69...
in 1960 (during which the South African police killed 69 black demonstrators protesting against restrictions on their freedom of movement) ended his support for his church's political teachings. In the three decades after his resignation from the denomination, Naudé's vocal support for racial reconciliation and equal rights led to upheavals in the Dutch Reformed Church.
Cottesloe and the Christian Institute of Southern Africa
In response to Sharpeville, the World Council of ChurchesWorld Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...
(WCC) sent a delegation to Johannesburg to meet with clerics. Naudé, by then the moderator of his church district (the Southern Transvaal Synod), helped to organize a consultation between the WCC and eighty South African church delegates in Cottesloe, a Johannesburg suburb. The consultation's resolutions rejected race as the basis of exclusion from churches, and affirmed the right of all people to own land and have a say in how they are governed. Naudé alone among his church's delegates steadfastly continued to reject any theological basis for apartheid after Prime Minister Verwoerd forced the DRC delegation to repudiate the consultation. The Dutch Reformed Church later left the World Council of Churches.
In 1963 Naudé founded the Christian Institute of Southern Africa
Christian Institute of Southern Africa
The Christian Institute of Southern Africa was an ecumenical progressive organisation founded by English and Afrikaans clergy in December 1963 to unite South African Christians against apartheid...
(CI), an ecumenical organization with the aim of fostering reconciliation through interracial dialogue, research, and publications. The DRC forced Naudé to choose between his status as minister and directorship of the CI. He then resigned his church post, left his Aasvoëlkop congregation in Northcliff, Johannesburg, and resigned from the Broederbond in 1963. As a result, he lost his status as minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. His last sermon to his congregation noted that "We must show greater loyalty to God than to man". Stoically anticipating the enormous pressure by the Afrikaner political and church establishment that was to come, he told his wife: "We must prepare for ten years in the wilderness." Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu later said " 'Beyers became a leper in the Afrikaner community.' "
During the same year Naudé was blamed for leaking documents about the Broederbond to the press, although the culprit later turned out to be University of the Witwatersrand New Testament scholar Albert S. Geyser. Naudé had given the documents to Geyser to evaluate the extent of the influence of the Broederbond on the church. Without his knowledge, Geyser then provided the information to a journalist. In 1967 Naudé and Geyser won a libel case against a conservative Pretoria professor, A.P. Punt, who had called them communists.
In 1970 Naudé was among few white South African Christian leaders "who openly called for understanding of the WCC decision" to provide financial support for liberation movements in southern Africa. "If blood runs in the streets of South Africa it will not be because the World Council of Churches has done something but because the churches of South Africa have done nothing," Naudé said. In response, the state formed the Schlebusch Commission
Schlebusch Commission
The Schlebusch Commission was a parliamentary commission established in 1972 by the South African government of Prime Minister BJ Vorster to investigate four anti-apartheid civil society organizations....
in 1972 to investigate anti-apartheid Christian organizations. When Naudé refused to testify, he was tried and imprisoned. After a night in the cells, a DRC minister paid his fine.
During a 1972 trip to Germany and Britain, Naudé preached at Westminster Abbey, "the first Afrikaans theologian to be so honoured". In 1973 the state withdrew his passport, but temporarily returned it in 1974 so that he could travel to the University of Notre Dame, Chicago, to receive the Reinhold Niebuhr Award for justice and peace.
As the CI increasingly incorporated black African radicals like Steve Biko
Steve Biko
Stephen Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the...
, Naudé had to bear the brunt of harassment by the state security police. The state eventually forced the CI to close in 1977.
Banning and the SACC
From 1977 to 1984 the South African government "banned" Naudé — a form of house arrest with severe restrictions on his movements and interactions. For example, he could not be in the same room with more than one other person. Other leaders of the Christian Institute suffered the same fate, including Brian BrownBrian Brown
Brian Brown or Bryan Brown may refer to:* Brian E. Brown, deceased Los Angeles, California, USA police officer* Bryan Brown, Australian actor* Bryan D. Brown, US general* Brian Brown , Australian rules footballer...
, Cedric Mayson, and Peter Randall
Peter Ralph Randall
Peter Ralph Randall was an anti-apartheid publisher in South Africa, and was banned by the former South African government between 1977 and 1981. He later became a professor in charge of teacher education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg....
. Although under constant police surveillance, Naudé managed to secretly help anti-apartheid resistors move around and out of South Africa by providing them with old vehicles that he had repaired himself. He later joked that this was "My small contribution to a struggle I knew was right." His ANC liaison was Sydney Mufamadi
Sydney Mufamadi
Fholisani Sydney Mufamadi is a South African politician. He was Minister of Safety and Security from 1994 to 1999 and Minister of Provincial and Local Government from 1999 to 2008.-Early life:...
, who became Minister of Provincial and Local Government in the post-apartheid government.
In 1980 Naudé and three other DRC theologians broke with the DRC and was accepted as clergy by the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa, the black African denomination established by the white Dutch Reformed Church.
After his unbanning in 1985, he succeeded Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
as secretary general of the South African Council of Churches
South African Council of Churches
The South African Council of Churches is an interdenominational forum in South Africa. It was a prominent anti-apartheid organisation during the years of apartheid in South Africa. Its leaders have included Desmond Tutu, Beyers Naudé and Frank Chikane....
. In this role he called for the release of political prisoners (especially Nelson Mandela) and negotiation with the African National Congress. In 1987 the apartheid regime outlawed public pleas for the release of detainees. But Naudé pressed Christians to continue to publicly pray for detainees, despite government threats of imprisonment.
After his term at the South African Council of Churches ended, Naudé continued to serve a number of anti-apartheid and development organizations, including the South African Legal Defence and Aid Fund, the Ecumenical Service for Socio-Economic Transformation, Kagiso Trust, and the Editorial Board of Challenge Magazine.
Post-apartheid influence
After 1990 Naudé occasionally opened ANC events with scripture readings. That same year he was invited by the African National CongressAfrican National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
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. 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.
In 2000 he signed the Declaration of Commitment by White South Africans, a public document that acknowledged that apartheid had damaged black South Africans.
After his death at 89 on 7 September 2004, Nelson Mandela eulogized Naudé as "a true humanitarian and a true son of Africa." Naudé's official state funeral
State funeral
A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honor heads of state or other important people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition...
on Saturday 18 September 2004 was attended by President
President of South Africa
The President of the Republic of South Africa is the head of state and head of government under South Africa's Constitution. From 1961 to 1994, the head of state was called the State President....
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...
, other dignitaries, and high-ranking ANC officials. Naudé's ashes were scattered in the township
Township (South Africa)
In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...
of Alexandra
Alexandra, Gauteng
Alexandra or Alex for short, nicknamed Gomora is a township located in Gauteng province, South Africa. It is part of Johannesburg, close to the wealthy suburb of Sandton and is bounded by Wynberg on the west, Marlboro and Kelvin on the north, Kew, Lombardy West and Lombardy East on the south...
, just outside Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
.
He is survived by his wife, four children, and two great-grandchildren.
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.'"
Honors and accolades
During his life Naudé received several honors, including the Bruno Kreisky Award (Germany, 1979)http://www.kreisky.org/human.rights/englisch/awards.htm, the Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award (USA, 1984)http://www.feri.org/common/news/info_detail.cfm?QID=1983&ClientID=11005, the African American Institute Award (USA, 1985), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights AwardRobert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award was created by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial in 1984 to honour individuals around the world who show courage and have made a significant contribution to human rights in their country....
(USA, 1985), the Swedish Labour Movement Award (Sweden, 1988), the Order of Oranje-Nassau (Netherlands, 1995), Order for Meritorious Service
Order for Meritorious Service
The Order for Meritorious Service was an award in South Africa which ran from 1986-2002 and was the country's highest honor. It was awarded to South Africans who have rendered exceptional public service. It was awarded to people by the order of the President...
(Gold) (South Africa, 1997), and the Order of Merit (Germany, 1999).
In 1993 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
by the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
.
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 also bears his name.
Naudé received fourteen honorary doctorates during his lifetime.
In 2004 Naudé was voted 36th among Top 100 Great South Africans
SABC3's Great South Africans
Great South Africans was a South African television series that aired on SABC3 and hosted by Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu and Denis Beckett. In September 2004, thousands of South Africans took part in an informal nationwide poll to determine the "100 Greatest South Africans" of all time...
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. 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.
"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."
See also
- Christian Institute of Southern AfricaChristian Institute of Southern AfricaThe Christian Institute of Southern Africa was an ecumenical progressive organisation founded by English and Afrikaans clergy in December 1963 to unite South African Christians against apartheid...
- Pro Veritate
Beyers Naude taught people the true message of justice. His deeply held Christian faith underpinned everything he did and he was fearless and unequivocal in standing up against cruelty and injustice.
