THE BOOK THAT BROUGHT ENEMIES TOGETHER - Ginn Fourie and Letlapa Mphahlele

Presentation by Ginn Fourie and Letlapa Mphahlele at the Books Building Bridges function, presented by the Free State Provincial Library and information Service in celebration of A Decade of Democracy on 19 April 2004 at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum Reservoire. 

“Due to limited time I will present only cameos of my journey to the day that my book brought us together. I was born in 1960 in a small village in Limpopo Province in South Africa, where as a young child I attended to the family’s livestock. By age 15, I had become a fanatical Christian and resisted the tradition of my people to use circumcision as a rite of passage to adulthood. My father and other relatives were not of the same mind and took me forcibly to the place of the ritual, where I stayed for the weeks of transition to manhood. A similar ritual was followed the next year and my soul was troubled by the contrast of my ancestral traditions and my Christian beliefs. 

At school I was also plagued by the poverty and oppression of my people by the violent and unsympathetic ‘Apartheid’ system which was ruling in South Africa at the time. Eventually I decided that since God seemed unwilling to solve the issues for which I had prayed, I would take the liberation into my own hands and so started my secret military training in Botswana - not even my family knew where I was. After many journeys to East and West Africa and a number of spells in the jails of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, I was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Apla in 1985. By this time my faith had dwindled and today I consider myself an atheist.

I have been criticised for taking those decisions when the date for democratic elections had already been set for April 1994. My position was one of being at war and although there had been talks and plans, there was no guarantee that liberation was to be the final outcome, particularly since the Boeremag (an extreme right-wing organisation) was very active.

In 2002 I was still dodging the police, because I had withdrawn my amnesty application to the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission instituted in 1995) when my book was published by Kwela Books in Cape Town and charges were withdrawn against me in the Bloemfontein High Court.

This allowed me to launch my book countrywide and one such event was at the Waterfront in Cape Town on 22 October 2002. After I had delivered my speech, the press club opened the floor for questions. There were many questions and I had been warned that there may be former victims present. No preparation was sufficient for the question of one who stood and identified herself as Ginn Fourie - the mother of Lyndi who had died in the Heidelberg Tavern massacre. She asked if I had not trivialised the TRC by withdrawing my amnesty application and wanted to know why I had done so?! I introduce you to Ginn Fourie”. 

Ginn Fourie joined Letlapa Mphahlele on stage and provided background leading up to the book launch where they met. They then continued their story, taking turns. 

“It was a hot summer’s day, one of the last in December 1993. My husband Johann and I arrived home after being out all day to find friends waiting in the driveway. They realised we had not heard about the Heidelberg massacre, and my friend Dee said, 'Sit down I need to talk with you'. My response was, 'Don’t mess with me - it’s Lyndi isn’t it and she’s dead or you would be rushing me to the hospital?' 

At her funeral I prayed : 

Gracious Parent, Great Spirit 

You gave your only Son 

to bring healing for every soul on earth

Thank you for our only daughter

May healing come through her death 

to each person she touched - especially those who murdered her

Mary, Mother of God our children died at the hands of evil men

Lyndi had no choice, no time

But your Son said it for her :

“Father forgive them they do not know what they do”

We gave her bed and board and some love

You gave her forgiveness and a love that was :  

honest,

pure, 

selfless,

colour- and gender-free.

Dear God she taught me well of you

able to listen,

able to hear.

That was her life that you gave her

Her death was swift and painless, thank goodness

My heart is broken

The hole is bottomless

it will not end

But you know all about it.

Thank you for the arms,

the lips,

the heartbeats

of family and friends to carry us.

I trust you with my precious Lyndi

This planet is a dangerous place to live

I know that you will come soon to fetch us

I wish it were today

But I will wait for your time

The media placed the event into perspective and the possible relationship of the PAC responsibility for both the St James Church and Heidelberg massacres. Three young men were detained within a week and I attended the criminal trial in the Cape Town Supreme Court in November 1994. Although the evidence against them was overwhelming they denied any knowledge of the event. I sent them a message saying that I forgave them if they were or felt guilty. They thanked me, but insisted that they knew nothing about it.

In October 1997, we met again at the TRC where they had applied for amnesty. Now their story was a different one, and as they described going to the Tavern that night and the joyous liberation songs they sang en route, I struggled to maintain my forgiveness, and the anger welled up again. I had the opportunity to tell them who Lyndi was and that she was on their side for liberation. They asked to speak to me again, they thanked me for my forgiveness and said that they would take the message of peace and hope to their communities and to their graves, whether they were granted amnesty or not. They received amnesty and were released in August 1998.

Then in October 2002 I turned my car radio on en route to work, something I seldom did, to hear an interview with Letlapa Mphahlele and that he was launching his book at the Waterfront that very day. I got myself down to the press-club luncheon …

Letlapa responded to my question at the book launch by saying that he withdrew his amnesty application for two reasons. Firstly because if the TRC were interested in the truth, why did they have lawyers present to tell people what the truth was? And secondly, Apla was participating in a just war, yet his cadres were paraded before the world as criminals, whilst the former defence force members were honoured members of the present SA National Defence Force. This was a hard pill for him to swallow. He came straight from the podium and spoke to me, asking me to meet with him - he would change any plans which he had for the week that he would be in Cape Town to meet with me, and in that moment I saw the remorse in his eyes and body language, it told of integrity. We did meet and as a result Letlapa invited me to his homecoming ceremony in Seleteng on 7 December the same year. Then later he phoned to ask if I would speak.” 

Letlapa described the day with its festivity : “…  the young Lions chanting and dancing outside the hall, there were hundreds of people and many dignitaries on the platform, the praise singer was performing his ritual with a horn which would sound to affirm what the speaker had said about their brave returning liberator. Ginn stole the show, when she stood up and asked my people to forgive her ancestors (the British) for the shame and humiliation they had brought on black people, treating them as ignorant savages who were worthless except as slaves and servants and then during apartheid the shame had overwhelmed us to result in violence. My people were very moved and accepted you, as a Mother of Africa”. 

Ginn then told of the Conciliation Ceremony that Letlapa organised for the freedom fighters in Cape Town who were unable to attend the homecoming ceremony. “Some of my friends and family were able to attend on 2 January 2003 at a school hall in Khayelitsha. Now it was my turn to be moved by a poem which Letlapa had written and presented to me to read.” 

To Lyndi Fourie

Forgive our deafness

Our ears are modulated

To hear voices of the dead

Counselling us from your tomb

We leap at your still commands

Hands that unleashed thunder on you

Nine summers ago

This summer tremble before your throne

In the twilight of our age

The angry soldier breezed from the bush

Tried in vain to hate

Succeeded in hurting

Today the guerilla is foraging the bush

For herbs

To heal hearts swollen with grief

Show us

How to muffle the roar of our rage

How to dam the rivers of our tears

How to share laughter and land

Land and laughter

Forgive our idiocy

Our souls are tuned

To heed prophecy

By the graveside of the prophet

Whose blood we spilt

Whose teachings we ridiculed

While he walked among us

“In July 2003 we were invited to the Grahamstown Festival to participate in a Conciliation March from Rhodes University to the Cathedral.  At the moving ceremony, Ginn asked the Afrikaners present to forgive her British ancestors for the shame and humiliation brought upon them by the Anglo-Boer. She said ‘No TRC or conciliation, the ghosts of the past still haunt us, in the pain and violence felt and enacted by many’.”

Ginn continued : “Barely a year after we met at the book launch, the Lyndi Fourie Foundation was registered as a Section 21 company and we launched the Foundation at Helderberg College exactly 10 years after Lyndi died, on 30 December 2003, with a multi-cultural event for 200 people. The non-profit registration is now also complete.

Letlapa asked Ginn, “Who do you find has been most responsive to conciliation in South Africa? 

She answered : “Research done about three years ago indicated that a majority of White South Africans felt that Apartheid was a good idea, wrongly implemented. Whereas I have personally experienced the openness and willingness of Black people to integrate and work together for the concept of One Nation - One People.

The audience was challenged to respond to our story of hope and spiritual evolution, to assess where they are on the barometer of conciliation in South Africa. A number of people responded very positively and we exceeded our time limit without guilt. The launch of Letlapa’s book has brought us together in a powerful way and enabled us to build bridges across unmentionable boundaries. 

Thank you to the Free State Provincial Library Service for the wonderful opportunity that this event gave us to share our story.” 

For further information about the Lyndi Fourie Foundation :

www.lyndifouriefoundation.org.za

Contact details: 

Ginn Fourie 

Address :                            P O Box 5134

                                           HELDERBERG 

                                           7135

E-mail :                               ginnfourie@absamail.co.za 

Cell                                     082 8347475

Letlapa Mphahlele                          

Cell                                     083 7691205                                         

Child of this soil available from : 

Kwela Books

Tel : 021 406 3605

Letlapa Mphahlele, an Anti-Apartheid Liberation Army Commander in the APLA, is that rarest of creatures: a military man with a sensitive, seeking soul. In Child of this Soil, he tells his story, giving us an insider's view of the armed struggle. After a childhood marked by a questing, rebellious nature, the young Letlapa flees South Africa. His exile will not end for many ears, as he embarks on the turbulent, nomadic life of a guerilla: swept from one end of Africa to the other, migrating from refugee camp to prison cell to High Command. Enduring rigorous training, political infighting, and the loneliness of a life led underground, he develops into a mature political thinker and effective commander. In a unique combination of blow-by-blow action and thoughtful commentary, Letlapa Mphahlele is a philosopher and poet. He does not shy away from tough moral issues, nor does he shirk responsibility fro decisions. His story is a lively read, packed with anecdotes about leaders, politicians, cadres and other vivid characters - brightened by Mphahlele's delightful self-deprecating humour.  Mike Nicol writes "The writer has written a memoir that does all the right things: vibrant autobiography drives a narrative that plays out against the political history of the last few decades. He begins with his childhood, his teenage swing to Christianity and rejection of ancestor worship, then his growing political awareness until he leaves the country to, eventually, join the PAC in Botswana. From there he undertakes military training in Guinea and Tanzania before returning to Botswana and Zimbabwe to run some of the cadres infiltrating South Africa. The concluding chapters describe his underground activities in South Africa and Lesotho, and his disenchantment with the new political order. What distinguishes this book is the writer's wry, often ironic, sense of humour, his straight-talking contrariness, his poetic use of language which gives the narrative a dramatic energy and supplies some memorable images, let alone his sheer enthusiasm for living and ability to fight back against some dark experiences. The reader is charmed by him and his humanity." A well-written and captivating account of a fugitive life, this is the author's first English language book. He was born in his mother's village of Rosenkrantz in the northern Transvaal on December 8, 1960, and now lives in Johannesburg.

Book review taken from : www.kalahari.net/bk/product.asp?toolbar=&sku=25836332&format=detail