Towards the end of 1838, a considerable number of Voortrekkers settled along the Mooi River, and in November of that year Potchefstroom was laid out.
An urgent need for a church was soon realised by the initial Voortrekker community, who soon launched an appeal for contributions to a building fund. On the 26th of March 1842, Rev. Daniel Lindly thus established the first congregation in the Transvaal.
But soon after the establishment of the first congregation in 1842, a variety of political and social conditions led to internal conflicts within the church, and these conflicts lead to factional groups who eventually decided to start their own congregations.
These theological differences which led to the split are the root of this short inquiry into the origins of The Three Sister Churches.
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Although not claiming to an conducting a socio-anthropological inquiry, this story aims to uncover the story behind The Three NG Sister Churches, and their impact on the ensuing politics of South Africa, which also led to people of colour being allocated separate churches under the banner of NG Kerk.
As I was preparing to undertake this journey, I was compelled to visit the foundational character of the churches and their formulation and sustenance of the Afrikaner Identity, that was very intricately linked to a young yet rapidly evolving language -Afrikaans.
My curiosity also allowed for a fruitful occasion to investigate the seminal poet and theologian J D Du Toit, and his involvement in the Reformed Church denominations, while also effecting on the imaginative undertaking of establishing Theological Societies in the Transvaal.
Another enquiry aimed to uncover a detailed a count of how people of colour were eventually allocated “their own churches” so as to not worship with white people, and to understand if these NG church denominations proliferating the South African township have any affiliation with Three Sister Churches.
What complacencies were displayed by pastor of black denominations in this form of segregation based on not sole race, but religious affinities that are in themselves self-righteously flawed yet prevalent ordeals experienced by many people throughout the world.
Human do have a habit of adjusting habits according to changing times, and this I have discovered through my conversations with various Reverends, Pastors, Curators and Historians, and this oral narrative nature of their stories allows for a fresh analysis of events and times that effectively still confront contemporary minds.
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Cities like Potchefstroom possess unprecedented historical memories that are both comprised blood and scars, but a socio-cultural signature that brands its citizens as custodians of its heritage. A certain measure of protecting artefacts, historical facts, as well the judgements that history is dealing with its present.
Its concentration of historical buildings has left an indelible mark on the heritage value attached to this city, but undeniably there still remains a to to be excavated and preserved for posterity, places such as concentration camp gravesites fo the victims of South Africa’s grievous Anglo-Boer War.
This city is significant in that it also posses an evolving character on diversity, and as much as the many elders who observed and conserve and preserve its hallowed history might feel threatened by their once staunchest foes - embodied in blackness of filmmaker, but there are those who have opened their hearts of an inclusive retelling of the best and worst of our collective history.
To those elders I am forever indebted and do hope they would again engage with my inquisitive mind, which even though unnerved by some minor discoveries through research, he remains dedicated to telling the story of The Three Sister Churches in relation to Potchefstroom historical significance and the theological roots of its culture.
An anonymous animosity exists between the black and white residents, but the uncanny is the loathing that has separated the white community itself. This segregation is also steeped in the church history of The NG Kerks, with its denominations and profiles .
The filmmaker has already been arrogantly been interrogated about reasons why a “swart man Moet ’n Afrikaner’s Storie vertel”, what give this black man the right to even thinks I deserve to hear their story? And this in regards to the seminal poet and linguist J D DuToit, who translated The Bible into Afrikaans.
That sense of ownership of story is something questionably, but I am still willing to delve into a myriad of sentiments that made this century long religion separation even construct a racist system that not only shredded the fabric of this country, but still continues to wreak havoc on our contemporary social structures.
There seems to exists zones of dis-remembrance, places relegated to non-memory, where horrors executed upon people and their kin are mere forgotten, or hidden.
These places are often just public spaces like parks, vacant lots and clearly abandoned infrastructure, which allows for for no hint or predictive method of dealing with sombre memories haunting such places.
A visit to a site which was the gravesite of black victims of concentrations during The anglo-Boer, left my soul disheveled and bewildered by how the history of my people seems to have been less venerated.
Located just opposite The Potchefstroom Hospital, the space is a hive of activity, with vendors and car guards allows plying their trades for hospital visitors and patients; and I am certain very few occupants of the hospital itself know of the unethical medical practices that brought people to death by starvation, pestilence and disease.
The puzzling thing is there are contradictory sentiments and expressions about the past, those who recognise the value of inclusive historical revisits between the people of South Africa; that need is evident in a younger generation of both and white cultural activists.
Many are occupying position in heritage related posts that are meant to preserve a collective memory, and all they require is the support from the older generation who have more knowledge about the past and how it affects the present and hopefully what history can teach the future.
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Outrageously oppressive recollections of racism were roused during this excursion into the history of a city which was once The Capital of Transvaal, after years of having woven a persona with a social conscience that goes beyond racial construct, but I must admit, there were moment of rage against sordid machine which was constantly staring me in the faces, and seeing a Kaffir, disturbing the peace of a guarded people.
I recalled and had to admit that a new dose of segregationists philosophies are still prevalent in these regions, where a farmer is in conflict with his farm-worker he calls boys while they are older than his father.
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