Spirituality in the African National Congress struggle for liberation in South Africa : 1912-1996

This thesis traces the influence of Spirituality on the African National Congress (ANC) struggle for liberation in South Africa (1912 - 1996). It therefore demonstrates how God has been operating in the South African conflict situation. Stories about Che Guevara's involvement in the struggle for freedom in Cuba and Bolivia and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's participation in the war against Nazism in Germany have been included in this work in order to expose the universality of spirituality. The main focus of this work is the practice of the ANC struggle for liberation between 1912 and 1996. When the history is read and synthesized from a Christian perspective it relates well to the biblical story about the liberation of the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage. The main source of information has been both primary and secondary documents. Content analysis as a research method has been mainly used in order to identify Christian traits such as selflessness, brotherly love, mercy, ability to forgive, gratuity and compassion as signs of the presence and influence of spirituality in the behaviour of the leadership of the ANC in this struggle for South Africa. Another preoccupation of this thesis is the ANC's need for national reconciliation and reconstruction of people's lives after the war of liberation in 1994.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Religious Studies

Year dc:date.issued

1997

Author dc:creator

• Masutha, Nkhumeleni A

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mazamisa, Welile

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14337

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14337