wfn.org | UMNS# 04457-Methodist school survives challenges over 150 years

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Methodist school survives challenges over 150 years 

Oct. 5, 2004	 News media contact:   Kathy  Gilbert * (615) 7425470* 
Nashville {04457}

NOTE: Photographs and two related reports, UMNS stories #455 and #456, are
available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

HEALDTOWN, South Africa (UMNS)-Sitting amid the rugged and rolling hills of
rural South Africa is a majestic monument to the dreams of Methodists who
founded a school that will not die.

Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of Healdtown, a school started by
Methodist missionaries in 1845. During the years since its founding, the
school has suffered from repressive government, fire, looting and vandalism. 

In 1855, it became a college and flourished until 1953, when it was taken
over by the Department of Bantu Education. The Bantu Education system was
designed to train black Africans for roles as laborers, workers and servants
only. 

Healdtown was the first Methodist educational center to suffer from a wave of
burnings that swept South Africa in 1976. In the 1980s to early 1990s it was
closed due to the widespread repressive measures of South Africa's apartheid
government. In 1994, the school re-emerged as Healdtown Comprehensive School.

Despite all the problems, Healdtown is still known for producing many African
leaders who were educated there, including Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, who
became an international symbol of human rights and the first post-apartheid
president of South Africa.

"When Healdtown was closed down, not only education went, but the economy of
the region was depressed, and the morale of the people went down," says
Bishop Zipho Siwa, of the Grahamstown District in which the school is
located. "Now with the new government in place, it is our intention to
re-establish Healdtown and make it a beacon of hope again."

The area in which the school is located is rural and extremely poor. "The
problem is that the children in the area come from very poor families and
they cannot afford the privilege to go to more prestigious schools, so we
want to make Healdtown prestigious but accessible," Siwa explains.

About 250 children from surrounding villages attend 8th through 12th grades
at Healdtown today.

Headmaster Francois Kalp says about 21,000 people live in 17 villages within
40 kilometers of the school.

"Many of the children have never been out of their villages," he says. He
brings in newspapers and magazines for them to read, "so they at least see
more of the world."

The Rev. Martin Songelwa lives in the parsonage on campus and is pastor of
the Healdtown Methodist Chapel. He has been there for less than a year. "It
is like coming to live with a skeleton," he says. Pointing out all the ruined
buildings, he says it is easy to imagine how majestic the school once was.

Siwa says part of the strategy in restoring Healdtown is to reopen the
boarding facilities. The hostel in which Mandela lived while attending the
school still stands, and plans call for it to become an information and
tourism center.

All involved in the restoration agree other projects must also be developed
to help the school and surrounding community survive. Some of the ideas
include operating a bakery, and growing and producing paprika. 

"The idea is to use local people," Kalp explains. "We cannot build a white
elephant; commercial ventures must be part of the plan." 

Something must be done soon, before the remaining buildings suffer further
damage, Kalp says. "The church can play a big part in making something of
Healdtown."

"This is a huge project," Siwa adds. "We do not know if we will have the
capacity to achieve it, but we are working hard."

Healdtown stands as proof to the rest of the world that there are ways of
overcoming challenges, he says.

"There are many lessons to learn from the history of Healdtown," he points
out. "The previous government was very strategic in trying to destroy the
culture and the morale of the people, and they were very successful in doing
that because the people in that area are very much depressed. 

"What I want to say to the rest of the world is come and help us to be us,
and through this journey also perhaps we can teach other people to be
themselves as well."

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service