wfn.org | Africa Trip Calls for Increased Church Commitment

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
Internet:  news@ncccusa.org

34NCC4/3/98         FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BACK FROM TRIP, NCC HEAD CALLS FOR INCREASED CHURCH 
COMMITMENT TO AFRICA 

Following is an interview with the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown 
Campbell, General Secretary of the National Council of 
Churches (NCC), following her participation on the official 
U.S. Presidential delegation to South Africa March 25-29.

Q:  Why were you chosen to accompany President Clinton 
to South Africa? What was your role?

A:  I was in the 70-member official delegation, which 
included members of Congress, corporate CEOs, President 
Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, and the Presidential staff.  There 
were two representatives of the church, African Methodist 
Episcopal Bishop Fred Calhoun James and myself.

The President said that he chose every person personally 
and that he wanted to include people who worked in the 
anti-apartheid or Civil Rights movements.  Everyone on the 
trip was credentialed not by virtue of their jobs but by 
virtue of what they had done in the freedom struggle, 
including the members of Congress who went.  One of the 
wonderful things on the plane was listening to people's 
stories about South Africa and about the Civil Rights 
movement.

I think the President's strongest signal to that commitment 
was naming Jesse Jackson as his special envoy to South 
Africa.  It was interesting how many ministers played 
special roles.  The Ambassador to South Africa, James 
Joseph, is a United Church of Christ minister.  Andy 
Young's name was often lifted up, who is another United 
Church of Christ minister, for having played one of the 
major roles with the UN in relation to South Africa.

Q: Why was it important that the NCC be represented on 
the Presidential delegation?

A:  Because the NCC has a long history both in the Civil 
Rights Movement and in the anti-apartheid movement, I think 
our presence was very logical, and I'm grateful to the 
President for recognizing that.  The President said that 
there was a sense in which my presence as general secretary 
helped him, because there are many people in South Africa 
who know the NCC.  Among them is Thabo Mbeki, whom I 
visited when he was in exile, writing the Constitution for 
the new South Africa.

I think President Clinton knows, as well, that there will 
be important follow-up that the churches must play if 
Africa is to be treated as a partner and not as an object 
of charity.

Q:  What was the tone in South Africa, especially in 
light of what's been happening with the Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission?  Are the people able to build 
a different kind of society?

A:  Probably the best time to sense the tone was at the 
State dinner.  There were 750 people, all personally 
invited by South African President Nelson Mandela.  The 
tone has been affected by the way in which Mandela emerged 
from all those years in prison without hatred, without 
bitterness, without rancor, but as someone who was prepared 
to move toward building a new South Africa.  He continues 
to say, "I am not here to punish.  I am here to work toward 
a future that is the future for all South Africans."  He 
says that over and over again.

To me, he is reminiscent of Martin Luther King, Jr.  You 
never heard Dr. King say that white people should be 
punished for their deeds.  He consistently said "We are all 
God's children" and insisted upon the inclusion of Blacks 
in that "all God's children."  Similarly, Mandela says, "I 
will work toward a future for Black South Africans in which 
there is economic stability, education and opportunity, but 
I will also make this a safe place for all South Africans."  
The tone he sets at the top is what makes it possible for 
people to behave toward one another in forgiving and grace-
filled ways.  And they are.

Q:  Do the churches help with that?

A:  The churches absolutely help in that process.  The 
churches are struggling a bit now.  The anti-apartheid 
movement was so much a part of their mission and now the 
churches need to find their role and mission in the new 
South Africa.  The church has to develop its new identity 
in a South Africa that is free.  Since the church played 
such a strong role in the anti-apartheid movement, so much 
of their leadership is now part of the government.  Frank 
Chikane, who was head of the South African Council of 
Churches, is now the chief of staff for Thabo Mbeki.  
Beyers Naude has worked with the Truth and Reconciliation 
Commission.  Desmond Tutu chairs the Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission.

How, then, does the church give South Africa the kind of 
undergirding it needs now when the challenges are 
economic?.  How do you create a South Africa where there 
are economic possibilities for people who for years were 
basically servants to others?

One of the most powerful statements was made by Thabo 
Mbeki.  I asked him publicly, "What is it you want us to 
do?"  He said, "If the energy that was put into the 
disinvestment movement could now be translated into the 
reinvestment of all of Africa, then I believe that we would 
find progress."  He was really saying that the kind of 
moral energy that went into the bringing down of the system 
needs to be focused on the rebuilding of Africa, and he was 
very clear to talk about not just South Africa, but the 
whole continent of Africa.

Q:  When Desmond Tutu spoke to the NCC's General 
Assembly in November 1996, he pressed the whole issue of 
forgiving foreign debt.  Did that issue come up?

A:  It did.  President Clinton made a statement that he 
felt he had come to understand the debt issue better since 
he'd been in Africa.  Desmond Tutu pressed the debt issue 
directly with the President, who said that there will be 
debt reduction for the poorest of the countries, perhaps 
debt forgiveness.  He did not put forward a specific 
proposal, but he did promise that he would deal with the 
issue, and he spoke to the members of Congress and said, 
"Obviously, I will need your support in this."  What the 
specific proposal will be, we will not know until we see it 
written out.

I have watched as President Clinton has moved through 
Africa and noted the tremendous emotional power that Africa 
has had for him.  He began to put away his written speeches 
others had helped prepare and began to speak from his heart 
and from the knowledge that he was gaining in Africa.  
There's no question but that Africa informed him and helped 
him develop his own thinking.  I have no question that he 
will return from Africa with a different agenda than the 
agenda he took with him.  I think it will be a broader 
agenda, I think it will be deepened on some issues, like 
debt reduction.  There's no question he will continue to 
focus on the trade issue, because he personally believes 
that Africa must become a trading partner of the United 
States.  The presence of 12 CEOs of major corporations was 
an indication of that belief.

Q:  What role do the churches have to play in Africa's 
future?

A:  While I think it is up to many people to see that 
Africa become strong economically and that the business 
community needs to plays its role, I also believe that the 
churches have a historic role to play.  President Clinton 
himself said, "We have not treated Africa fairly."  He said 
that during the Cold War, we chose people because they were 
our friends, not because they were giving good leadership 
in Africa.  I was pleased to hear him say this.  His 
confessional statement is tied to my belief that the future 
of Africa is a theological as well as an economic issue for 
us, because Africa has clearly been a continent that has 
been affected by the racial prejudice that exists in this 
country.  There is not question in my mind that it is not 
an accident that Africa is misunderstood, that it gets less 
aid than other continents, and that it has been treated 
without the kind of fairness that is due to a continent of 
its size, history and culture.  This is in large part 
related to the racial bigotry that exists in this country 
and we have to deal with that issue on a continuing basis.  
We cannot say that racial prejudice in this country can be 
contained within our own borders.  We export it, and there 
is a whole continent of people who then suffer.  It is 
important that President Clinton has talked about both a 
race initiative in this country as well as talking about 
making trade and relationships with Africa a priority.  The 
churches also are uniquely positioned to be a moral leader 
and call for an end to the racism that causes suffering 
both here and in Africa.

As churches, we need to assert that when we dream of a 
global human community where peace and justice are 
possible, Africa is essential to the realization of that 
dream.

Q:  There is a curious quirk about human nature that we 
will rally to the negative, we will fight apartheid.  
But how do we rally churches to a positive approach?  
How do we get people to be invested in Africa?

A:  Although the churches have played a major role in aid 
to Africa, they need to move beyond the issue of aid to the 
issue of partnership.  Take the example of Christian 
missionaries.  The missionaries left in their wake some 
cultural problems.  But they also left in their wake a very 
strong and positive legacy in the hospitals and schools 
they built, where many individuals who are now in 
leadership were trained.  The very people that we have 
trained and to whom we have introduced Christianity, now we 
must listen to them, because they have a message for us 
about Africa.  They are saying to us, "You helped to train 
us," or in evangelical language, "You helped to bring us to 
Christ.  Now listen to us, because we need you to be our 
partners as we move Africa to a place of real prominence in 
the world."  I think we need to respond to that.

Can we get people to do that as easily as we got them to 
object to the system of apartheid?  I don't know.  I think 
part of the answer is keeping Africa before our churches.  
If you look at the NCC, we have one office with only a few 
people to deal with the entire continent of Africa.  It 
would be my dream that our churches would say "We need at 
least ten people to deal with the continent of Africa," if 
we are seriously committed to changing the way in which 
this country looks at Africa.  I believe this Council needs 
to send a very high level delegation to Africa and we need 
to help create an Africa policy for our churches that is as 
important for our ecumenical life as the Middle East policy 
has been.

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