Reconciliation March and Ceremony in the Cathedral
Grahamstown Festival 3 July 2003
Ginn Fourie

Nearly 10 years ago Apla cadres burst into the Heidelberg Tavern in bservatory Cape Town... Our daughter Lyndi died as a result - She was tall and tan and 23 - just finishing a Civil Engineering degree - the apple of her fathers eye, and the sweetness of her brothers heart.

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

I met Letlapa Mphahlele the Apla Commander who had given the order for the Heidelberg massacre last year in October at his Book launch at the Waterfront in Cape Town. He invited me to speak at his Home coming ceremony in Limpopo ... Seleteng is the name of his village and the ceremony too place in Dec 2002.

I consulted my ancestral spirits to know what to say.. I asked Letlapa's people to forgive my ancestors for the way that they shamed and humiliated Black people through Slavery, Colonialism and finally Apartheid. His response was moving and magnificently expressed:

To Lyndi Fourie (Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela read)

Forgive our deafness
Our ears are modulated
To hear voices of the dead
Counseling 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

Here I stand in the Citadel of my 1820 Settler Ancestory. My roots, my 'Shades' nudge me gently, to say sorry, oh so sorry to Afrikaners for their part in the Anglo-boer war and what it did to shame and humiliate Afrikaners - No TRC no Conciliation, we continue to shadow box the demons of the past. I have learned to understand that SHAME, HUMILIATION and GUILT are the dark emotions which can overwhelm and trigger violence.

Dear God give us the energy for conciliation - we understand it is the dynamo at the heart of the Universe. We want to participate gladly to heal our broken land.