PROF. MANDLA MAKHANYA’S ADDRESS

REFORMATION, TRANSFORMATION, CHANGE AGENCY

ZK Matthews Great Hall

31 October 2017

  • Programme director, Prof Divya Singh
  • Executive Dean and Executive Deputy Dean of the College of Human Sciences
  • Management of Unisa
  • Leadership of the Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology
  • Discipline Leader of Church History, Prof Erna Oliver together with the project leaders who have produced this amazing published work and organized this historic event
  • A special greeting of all the authors who contributed in the conceptualization and the final production of this rich, diverse and insightful publication
  • I also recognize all our esteemed guests who have graced this special occasion
  • Unisa family that includes students, academic and administrative staff as well as our alumni
  • Of course I cannot fail to give a special recognition to our performing artists who have created a tranquilizing, inviting and soulful ambience to this occasion. Mrs Lee Smith, the Violinist and Mrs Collen Mare, the Organ player, you deserve a special mention indeed after this masterful performance
  • Distinguished audience, ladies and gentlemen

Indeed it is a great honour and privilege to address this special occasion that will go down as one of important milestones in the academic history of our institution. We gather here today to launch a book on Reformation, Transformation, Change Agency which marks and celebrates five centuries since Reformation Movement brought fundamental changes in the Christian World whose impact changed, in many important ways, human history and civilization. An examination of a wide literature on Christianity and church history immediately reveal how profound reformation was as it defined a new epoch in social, economic and political evolution of human history. It is, therefore, befitting that Unisa’s Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology would have seen it important to mark this important historical moment with a book launch in this grand style which will be etched in our memories for a long time to come.

Perhaps more intriguing in the conceptualization of this Festschrift with the title Reformation, Transformation and Change Agency is the drawing of an inspiration from this historic event that took place 500 years ago for confronting and interpreting challenges of the 21st century South Africa and the world. The conceptualisers of this project gave concrete expression to what a great historian, Ariel Durant, observed in his book, The Lessons of History, when he proclaimed that “The history is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.” This publication could have taken the easy path of simply retrieving what happened five centuries ago and take refuge away from the current challenges of our time. The conceptualization of this work invites us to reflect on the epoch-making history of reformation while it purposefully draws lessons from that historical moment in order to interpret and understand our current challenges with the aim of intervening.

It is said that on this day, 31 October five centuries ago, Martin Luther a German theological scholar who had spent his time as a monk reflecting on the virtues and vices of the Roman Catholic Church penned his 95 Theses which would trigger birth of the Reformation Protestant Church. It only took this courageous and thoughtful intellectual to effect profound changes in Christian church doctrine. More than four centuries later another civil rights activist named after Martin Luther, Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his now famous speech, I have a Dream, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Both these Christian figures and public intellectuals had a great impact on human history though they lived centuries apart. Their deep convictions, their incisive gaze on the true meaning of theology and scriptures in the face of injustice often committed using the very same religion as a platform and their commitment to social justice are common traits of these transformation change agents.

We must also remember that some of the independent African Christian Churches emerged from the perceived abuse of the Christian doctrine to justify slavery, colonial and apartheid oppression, something that was contrary to the Christian scriptures. Such a history ought to be documented as they were following in the footsteps of Martin Luther even though literature on church history has not given prominent voice to these developments.

Though we celebrate the intervention of Martin Luther and other theological luminaries of his era, as a sociologist I am often mindful of how historical moment and social conditions interface with individual role-players or leaders to shape any epoch or evolution of history. It is for this reason that Karl Marx observed that “Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past” (Karl Marx, in Tucker, 1972: 437). What, therefore, intrigues me is the interface between structure and agency to understand how great changes in history are made. When we unpack and clinically dissect reformation, transformation and change agency in any given historical moment or place is the sociology or environment that shape leaders and the character of leaders who intervene to change history. When we think of leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Oliver Reginald Tambo, Lillian Ngoyi, Charlotte Maxeke, Mahatma Ghandi, Albertina Sisulu and Walter Sisulu, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, Father Trevor Huddleston, Dr Beyers Naude and many others we ought to think of the socio-political environment they found themselves in and responded to together with their personal attributes as leaders of great vision, principle and substance. At the heart of OR Tambo 100th year memorial in 2017 is the question of leadership and character of ethical visionary leadership that shaped South African history. It is also a yearning for such quality of leadership in face of leadership crisis in the public, private and civic spheres of our society.

South Africa, Africa and the world today face a number of serious challenges which demand that we all become agents of transformation in our various spaces in our collective quest for social, economic and political justice. Most of these challenges, it can be argued, are due to failure of leadership or absence of ethical servant sacrificial visionary leadership driven by deep conviction and historic mission that prompted Martin Luther to challenge the whole Roman Catholic Church establishment at the time.

It is generally accepted that a post-apartheid South Africa’s democratic transition which commenced with great strides and a sense of promise for all has now taken some detour as signified by frequent reports of corruption, state capture, growing inequality, unemployment that has mainly afflicted youth and women, gender-based violence and violence against children, crisis of drug abuse in our communities, crisis in our public and corporate sector. The Mandela era was a season of hope and great anticipation due to his early interventions on national reconciliation, programmes meant to bring social justice and social infrastructure to the people who had been marginalized and nullified during more than three centuries of colonial and apartheid racial oppression and dispossession. Today we face many challenges in various spheres of our society and the nation is wallowing in the valley of despair waiting in great anticipation for leaders who will deliver them from the vices of our time. Perhaps this is the challenge we face today, we have become more dependent on messianic leaders to direct us and deliver us whereas a redemptive sense of civic responsibility and activism born out of self-reliance has faded over the years thus robbing us of a sense of agency. The notion of reformation and transformation cannot be abdicated to leaders as each one of the citizens and community members ought to understand that the freedom we attained in 1994 brought us rights which also come with responsibilities. We had seen the golden era of civic activism during the 1980s when there was the Mass Democratic Movement that mainly evolved from the United Democratic Front. This created a platform for participation in the struggle against apartheid by churches, labour unions, student formations, community organizations, sport bodies, academics and many other role-players.

Coming closer home, universities and the entire higher education system in South Africa are experiencing acute challenges on an unprecedented scale since the advent of our democracy. In the last two and a half years we have witnessed #Rhodes Must Fall, #Outsourcing Must Fall, #Fees Must Fall and #Sexual Harassment Must Fall in our various campuses with differing degrees of intensity and sometimes violent clashes. As we await the presidential Commission on Funding Model we are reminded of some challenges ahead. Many observers have noted that many academics and management of universities were caught off guard and had to react to these developments when in actual sense knowledge institutions ought to have anticipated and proactively intervened and driven these processes, perhaps it is easier said than done. But now that these issues are squarely in our institutional agenda transformation and change agency ought to take a leaf from Martin Luther as we embrace and facilitate transformation in our various portfolios without having to wait for instruction from leaders. Facilitation of this process is about intrinsic value and internalization of transformation.

Unisa has embarked on a transformation programme that is branded as Leading Change, and I implore you to enthusiastically embrace this platform as a space for reforming and transforming our institution in our quest for social justice and narrative justice in our epistemology. We can use the example of change agents such as Martin Luther who led reformation movement that gave birth to Protestantism. This movement impacted communities and local institutions alike. Some of you may be overwhelmed by the thought of participating in the programme of leading change and think that the challenges are too big to be tackled by ordinary staff members and students and yet Mother Teresareminds us that “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

As we all embark on uncharted waters of transforming our universities it will take courage, conviction, vision, compassion and sacrifice for a greater good for us to give real meaning to our vision statement, “The African University Shaping Futures in the service of humanity.” As we stand here today we can truly say that Martin Luther’s act of challenging the Roman Catholic establishment made an indelible mark in the faith community. He fundamentally dealt a serious blow on the abuse of religion at that time. He thus shaped the future of humanity and history has absolved him.

Again, let me conclude by paying tribute to the team that has made this event possible and for the intellectual contribution this volume will make in our reflections on church history as well as transformation and change agency as they relate to the challenges of our time.

I thank you

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