Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé (10 May 1915 – 7 September 2004) was a South African Afrikaner Calvinist

Dominee In Christianity, a minister is a person authorised by a church or other religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidan ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and the leading

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

anti-

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

activist. He was known simply as Beyers Naudé, or more colloquially, ''Oom Bey'' (

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

for "Uncle Bey").

Early life and education

One of eight children, Beyers Naudé was born to Jozua François Naudé and Adriana Johanna Naudé (née) van Huyssteen in

Roodepoort Roodepoort is a town in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly an independent municipality, Roodepoort became part of the Johannesburg municipality in the late 1990s, along with Randburg and Sandton. Johannesburg's most famous botanical g ...

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

(now

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

). The progenitor of the Naudé name was a French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

refugee named Jacques Naudé who arrived in the Cape in 1718.. The Naudé surname is one of numerous French surnames that retained their original spelling in South Africa. Beyers Naudé was named after General Christiaan Frederick Beyers, under whom his father had served as a soldier and unofficial

military chaplain A military chaplain ministers to military personnel and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military. In some cases they will also work with local civilians within a military area of operations. Although the term ''cha ...

during the second

Anglo-Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

."Beyers Naudé." African National Congress. Jozua Naudé, an Afrikaner Calvinist minister,or "

", "was convinced that the British would never leave." He helped to found the ''

Broederbond The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merw ...

'' (Afrikaans, "Brotherhood" or "League of Brothers"), the powerful Afrikaner Calvinist men's

secret society A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence a ...

that played a dominant role in

South Africa under apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. 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 produce the earliest translations of the Bible into the newly standardized language of

. In 1921, the Naudé family moved to the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

town of Graaff-Reinet, in the Karoo region. Beyers Naudé attended Afrikaans Hoërskool frikaans High School matriculating in 1931. Naudé studied theology at the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

and lived at

Wilgenhof Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

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 Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (; 8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966) was a South African politician, a scholar of Applied Psychology, applied psychology and sociology, and chief editor of ''Die Transvaler'' newspaper. He is commonly regarde ...

. 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 The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

and joined the ''Broederbond'' as its youngest member. For 20 years he served various congregations,"Beyers Naudé." ''Encarta''. starting at

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in Western Cape Province (1940–1942), Loxton (1942–1945),

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

- South-Olifantsfontein (1945–1949), Pretoria East (1945–1954),

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom (, colloquially known as Potch) is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier (Afrikaans for "pretty river" ...

(1954–1959) and Aasvoëlkop (

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

) (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.

Anti-apartheid activities

The

Sharpeville massacre The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng). After demonstrating against pass laws, a crowd of ...

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. He began to question the biblical justification of apartheid by the Dutch Reformed Church: "I made an intensive study of the Bible to prove that those justifications were not valid. I concluded that the passages that were being used by the white DRC to justify apartheid were unfounded. In some cases, there was a deliberate distortion in order to prove the unprovable!" 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 Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most juri ...

(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 (the Cottesloe Consultation) between the WCC and eighty South African church delegates in Cottesloe, a Johannesburg suburb. The Cottesloe 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 secret, confidential and unauthorized documents about the Broederbond to the press. The University of the Witwatersrand New Testament scholar Professor Albert S. Geyser later admitted that he had leaked the documents. Naudé had given the documents to Geyser to evaluate the extent of the influence of the Broederbond on the church. Geyser then provided the information to a journalist at ''The Sunday Times''. The book " The Super-Afrikaners. Inside the Afrikaner Broederbond " written by Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom published in 1978 exposed a name list of possible members of the Broederbond. The source of these documents, that was taken without authorization, was blamed on Naudé. In 1967 Naudé and Geyser won a libel case against conservative Pretoria Professor Adriaan Pont, 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."Letter to Rev. Dr Molefe Tsele, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, 7 September 2004." Georges Lemopoulos. World Council of Churches "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 Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

, "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 The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

USA, to receive the

Reinhold Niebuhr Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America ...

Award for justice and peace. As the CI increasingly incorporated black African radicals like

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known ...

, 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 Brown,

Cedric Mayson Cedric () is a masculine given name invented by Walter Scott in the 1819 novel ''Ivanhoe''.Sir Walter Scott, Graham Tulloch (ed.), ''Ivanhoe'', vol. 8 of The Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, Edinburgh University Press, 1998, , "explanator ...

, 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 Fholisani Sydney Mufamadi (born 28 February 1959) 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 Mufamadi was born on 28 Feb ...

, 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 were 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 Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

as secretary general of the

South African Council of Churches The South African Council of Churches (SACC) 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 an ...

. In this role he called for the release of political prisoners (especially

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

) and negotiation with the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

. 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 Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 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

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 The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid Activism, activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the power vacuum, political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African Nationa ...

movement and the

Pan Africanist Congress The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (known as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)) is a South African national liberation Pan-Africanist movement that is now a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert Sobukwe, that ...

. 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 A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of Etiquette, protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive ...

on Saturday 18 September 2004 was attended by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

, other dignitaries, and high-ranking ANC officials. Naudé's ashes were scattered in the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Alexandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...

, just outside

. He was 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 for services to human rights (Austria, 197

the Franklin D. Roosevelt

Four Freedoms The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), he proposed four fundamental freed ...

Award (USA, 198

the African American Institute Award (USA, 1985),

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, was created by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial in 1984, now known as the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights to honour individuals around the world who have shown great courage and have made a significant contr ...

(USA, 1985) along with Allan Boesak and Winnie Mandela, the Swedish Labour Movement Award (Sweden, 1988), the Order of Oranje-Nassau (Netherlands, 1995),

Order for Meritorious Service The Order for Meritorious Service is a South African National Order that consisted of two classes, in gold and silver, and was awarded to deserving South African citizens. The order was discontinued on 2 December 2002.Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...

(Germany, 1999). Naudé received fourteen honorary doctorates during his lifetime and in 1993 he was nominated for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

by the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (''Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by Am ...

Legacy

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 Beyers Naudé Drive is a large arterial route in Johannesburg, South Africa. It starts at the University of Johannesburg in Auckland Park, travelling through Melville, Roosevelt Park, Northcliff, Blackheath and traversing the N1 Western Bypass ...

. The Library Gardens in downtown Johannesburg, formerly known as Market Square, were renamed as Beyers Naudé Square.Beyers Naude Square goes natural
, joburg.org.za, retrieved 20 September 2014 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."" The

University of the Free State The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State (province), Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in ...

changed the name of one of its hostels (JBM Hertzog) to Beyers Naudé. In

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, the local Christian gymnasium (a middle school comparable to a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

) was renamed in honour of Beyers Naudé.

References

External links

Beyers Naude — Christian and Afrikaner Opposition to Apartheid

''Cry of Reason: An Afrikaner Speaks Out'' Video, 1987, 58 mins

Picture

Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology at Stellenbosch University
– dated 15 September 1995 {{DEFAULTSORT:Naude, Beyers 1915 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Afrikaner people Calvinist and Reformed anti-apartheid activists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People from Roodepoort South African Calvinist and Reformed theologians :Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa clergy Stellenbosch University alumni Afrikaner anti-apartheid activists Burials at Westpark Cemetery Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award laureates