On Friday the country celebrated Human Rights Day. The origin of this day is in the Sharpeville massacre which occurred on the 21st of March 1960. People were demonstrating against the “Pass Laws” which required non-white South Africans to get permission to leave the areas in which they lived to travel to the towns and cities where white people lived. The police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 69 people and wounding more than 180.
Africa as a continent has suffered wars, genocide, colonialism, AIDS and so much more. Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si points out that the global north, through the extraction of resources from our continent, has harmed us and continues to harm us through the long-term environmental impact of industrialisation. We are victims of global warming which has led to extreme weather events.
Africa has been crucified, and the people cry out “What have we done?” A song was sung in our churches and on the streets in the years following 1960. The text below is incredibly sad. While it was sung in a context of racism, we could also replace the word “black” with women, foreigner, gay and so on.
Senzeni na?
What have we done to deserve this strife?
Sono sethu, ubumnyama. Our sin is that we are black.
Sono sethu yinyaniso. Our sin is the truth.
Sibulawayo. They are killing us.
Mayibuye i Africa. Let Africa return.
Human rights are rights given to us by God, because we are made in his image and likeness. Each person has an innate dignity because they are a son or daughter of God. Because of this dignity we have rights such as the right to life, freedom, justice and so on. They are not gifts to us from a political system such as democracy, nor are they gifts to us from any political party. They are given to us by God, though sometimes we may need to struggle to gain them, live them and protect them. As we see in places across the world, we should not take our constitution or our bill of rights for granted. We must live the values enshrined in our constitution… and in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
