News

Sisters of the South African Area gathered on Women’s Day, 9 August 2024, in Pietermaritzburg for a morning workshop on Healing and Reconciliation, the second to be facilitated by the Kopanya Institute at the invitation of Congregational Leadership.

A smaller group convened later the same day at the Bluff in Durban to begin a more in-depth time together, taking seriously the call to address one of the mandates of the 2022 Congregational Chapter. The first workshop had taken place in June over the Youth Day weekend. The facilitators skillfully assisted the Sisters to enter into various processes aimed at enabling them to look at beliefs, behaviours, prejudices, assumptions and more that facilitate or hinder interpersonal relationships in community and in wider society.

Both Youth Day which commemorates the Soweto uprising of 1976 against an unjust educational system in the Apartheid years, and Women’s Day which marks the uprising of 1956 against amendments to Apartheid laws hold significance in South Africa’s collective memory, reminding the nation how far it has come in the work of uniting the country, and in how much still needs to be done individually and as a nation to grow in unity.

During the first workshop, Sisters remembered how out of touch and ignorant they often were during the Apartheid era where censorship and bans on communication in its different forms were the order of the day.  In later years what happened in 1976 was seen as part of the preparation for South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.  Ignorance of one another’s cultures, a culture of no critical thinking, poor communication, underlying fear, the need for right relationships all became themes to be addressed in the New South Africa, and in the lives of individuals and communities.

In August, the facilitators helped the group take next steps in the process of healing and reconciliation. There was sense in the group of needing to look forward, not back, viewing people in a positive way, accepting others in a non-judgmental way, acknowledging that reconciliation begins with me. The second part of the workshop helped Sisters recognize that we all carry baggage from the past, we all have unconscious biases. Indeed, biases represent generations of generalisations: labels stick. We are challenged to help one another own our biases, our prejudices. We all need to give and receive the five languages: words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, tangible gifts and physical touch. 

The Sisters feel called to follow up work around personal growth, developing leadership at local level, and ongoing reconciliation and healing.

Text:  Sr Alison Munro OP
Photos: Sr Prudence Cooper OP

August 2024