Closing Remarks

James R. Cochrane

Director of the ME99
University of Cape Town

[The following remarks were made immediately after the closing address by Frank Chikane (chapter 17). The first part refers to Chikane in a more personal context, but draws on this to display the entire vision of the ME99 and to some of the analysis that lies behind that vision. —Editor]

Let me begin my brief concluding remarks to this Multi-Event 1999 by responding in the first instance to some of the things said by Frank Chikane in his closing address to us. He and I, as it happens, have a long personal history together. Over that time we have had many debates about the role of religious communities in South African society, and more broadly. He, of course, contributed greatly in the nineteen eighties to that debate in South Africa, and took his place in the struggle against apartheid as a religious leader in the first place.

Since he has been in his current position in the office of the Deputy President, he has expressed his pain over the inability of former comrades to join in reconstruction processes in South Africa, and their frequent preference for an oppositional stance intrinsically in accordance with the modus operandi of the anti-apartheid view of the state as enemy. At a recent launching of the National Initiative for Contextualising Theological Education, an NGO including theological educators from a wide range of seminaries, universities and lay training programmes, Frank then said much of what he has again said today. At that time, he pointed to us as former comrades in the struggle and asked us, quite directly, where we were in the task of reconstruction.

His argument was that the theology which drove us in the eighties depended upon a model of reflection on praxis, whereas what he now saw all too frequently amongst us was a dependency on old theories which had not changed in the light of present practice, if it was even connected to practice any longer. The challenge could not have been clearer. For a while after Frank had left (to catch a plane) there was a great disturbance among many of those who were there. Someone commented, echoing a fairly wide viewpoint, ‘Frank is a sellout’. In my view, this indicated the lack of understanding of challenge he put before us then. A similar one is before us now in respect of the question of religion in public life.

The debates we have had throughout this ME99 must be practically realised in their implications if they are to have long term substance. We must learn to reflect more deeply on praxis and experience, and depend less on favoured theories which have not stood that test under current conditions.

It is my hope that this conference has provided a step forward in that process of reflection. What counts about the ME99 now is not whether a particular presentation of discussion was as good as it might be, or was better than expected. It is how this event has strengthened you, the participants in it, and created networks among you which may have /end p. 163/ longer term impact on the way you do things and think about them. I personally feel tremendous gratitude for the level of participation of delegates, not least because, by and large, those present entered into the spirit of the ME99 and its desire to be a staging post on the way to greater awareness of the issues facing religious communities who enter into public life, a stronger theoretical sophistication about this, and better practice in the future.

Though we failed to have all the voices present that we needed (particularly a number of individuals who exercise political and religious leadership whom we had invited), it still has been critical to have the fairly wide range of different voices present. These mixed voices force us all to recognise the power inequalities amongst us, and they require of us a commitment towards restructuring our relations with each other towards greater mutuality and a stronger framework for justice.

In this respect, it seems to me appropriate to end with one of my favourite bits from T S Eliot’s Four Quartets: ‘We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to return to the place where we started, and know it for the first time’. /end p. 164/