Learning from the prophets of the past

DR RAYMOND PERRIER

“THOSE who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Even if these are the only words of Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana that ever get quoted, they remain hauntingly poignant. When in South Africa we see examples under a democratic government of the kind of state violence, exclusion of the poor, blatant corruption and segregation of communities that were supposed to end in 1994, we might turn to this famous quote.

But we can also look back to the past to draw on inspiring examples of how we can respond to injustice. By coincidence, two biographies of leading Durban Struggle heroes have been launched within a few days of each other. Two very different characters, a brown Muslim woman and a white Christian man, who both made a profound mark on those who worked with them and who can continue to motivate new generations today.

One book is ‘Fatima Meer: born to struggle’ by Arjumand Wajid. The other is ‘Paddy Kearney: A Prophet for our Times’ by me! Kearney and Meer knew each other and were brought together by their shared admiration of the great Catholic Archbishop Denis Hurley.

In fact, Meer was invited by Kearney to a Patron of the Denis Hurley Centre, before she died in 2010. Kearney himself died aged 76 in 2018.

I don’t know what my fellow author’s experience was like, but I confess that I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing about Paddy (if I may call him that rather than the more academic ‘Kearney’).

I spent three years writing a doctoral thesis about him and then the last year condensing that into the book that has just been published. Since he was Chair of the Denis Hurley Centre Trust (effectively my boss), I worked very closely with Paddy but only in the last four years of his life. I actually did not know him for the four decades before that when he was so critical in the fight against Apartheid, the renewal of the Catholic Church and in shaping what South Africa and the Church could be in the future.

So, for me the pleasure was in working through his personal archive, reading books that I knew had influenced him and interviewing 70 people who had known him at various stages in his life. I also looked at the work of the organisations with which he was associated: Principally Diakonia Council of Churches, but also the Gandhi Development Trust, the International Centre Of Non-Violence (ICON) at DUT and the Active Citizens Movement. In fact, these organisations, together with the DHC, have arranged an annual Memorial lecture to honour Paddy and the most recent one was this past weekend with Judge Chris Nicholson.

Nicholson chose as the subtitle of his lecture ‘You cannot kill the truth’ which is highly appropriate given how much of Paddy’s life was devoted to helping people face up to the truth of what was happening in South African society. Nicholson chose to quote a passage from my book which I think exemplifies why Paddy’s work did not end in 1994.

Clearly, his most famous area of ministry was in combating Apartheid, a word which is simply the Afrikaans for ‘separateness’. The framers of apartheid argued not only that people could be separated (based on physical characteristics sometimes so arbitrary that a ‘pencil test’ was needed) but that they should be separated for the good of all. Separateness was not just possible but to be desired and encouraged.

This could not have been further from Paddy’s world view. He believed passionately that people of different colours should not be separated and that is why it was important for him to combat Apartheid. Initiatives such as the ‘exposure visits’ were not just about sharing information (after all there were other ways of doing that) but sharing space: people of different colours living together for a few days.

It is then logical that, after the end of apartheid, he would use the same energy to show that people of different economic classes should not be separated and so, in his later years, dedicate himself to the fight against poverty. The whites-only beaches of the 1970s were an affront to Paddy but so were the middle-class-only gated communities of the 2010s.

Paddy resisted the attempt to keep apart people of different colours and people of different economic classes; he also strove to overcome the barriers that separate Christians of different denominations, or people of different faiths or even, within a religious community, the barriers between clergy and lay people. One key lesson we can learn from him is how much more we achieve by working with others, and by focusing on what we have in common rather than what separates us.

I think the other great lesson is perseverance. Despite facing detention and harassment during apartheid, and disappointment and frustration after liberation, Paddy never gave up.

With the zeal of a prophet, he knew what the vision was; with the patience of a man of prayer he believed that light would eventually triumph over darkness. After running the Denis Hurley Centre for 10 years, through Covid, floods, riots and the degeneration of central Durban, I have continually drawn inspiration from a man who quietly and humbly just kept on.

Although Paddy was often in the room with politicians, he always kept them at arm’s length.

But one politician who knew him throughout his lifetime (and took the trouble to attend his funeral) is Pravin Gordhan.

In his foreword to the book he says this: “At a time where the world is in political turmoil, where religious conflict is rife; inequality spreads like a virus across the globe; and principles are easily sacrificed for short-term gains, Perrier captures the quintessence of Paddy’s life in this book and gives future generations alternate and better possibilities for humanity. This homage to Paddy Kearney’s life should inspire a new generation of change agents to continue his fight for social and economic justice and peace.”

– Nicholson’s 2024 Paddy Kearney Lecture is available on the Denis Hurley Centre website; Perrier’s book can be obtained online at www.madeindurban.co.za , from the DHC, and from specialist bookshops. For more information email raymond@denishurleycentre.org .

Dr Perrier is the Director of the Denis Hurley Centre and an advisor to the Department of Social Development for a national policy on homelessness.

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