Word: mamelodi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Smith, 59, is by now fairly well accustomed to being treated as an enemy. No Pretoria parish in the Dutch Reformed Church has invited him to speak since he went to Mamelodi. People he thought were friends have turned away. There are telephone calls in the night. "Now that you're living with the Kaffirs," said one caller, "when we come to shoot them, we'll shoot...
...accused him of preaching integration. "Teach theory, not conclusions," his superiors warned him. When Smith joined in public protests against the government's bulldozing of squatter shacks in Capetown, he was called before a church commission to justify his action. It was then that he got the call to Mamelodi...
...very melodious there. The government began building the township in the late '40s as a sort of dormitory-warehouse for black workers needed in Pretoria. The standard houses are four-bedroom huts, each with an outside water faucet next to the outdoor privy. For years the people shipped to Mamelodi were forbidden to own their homes or make improvements. That was supposed to make them look forward to eventual relocation to remote tribal homelands. Recently, the government has relaxed those restrictions; houses are being improved and a few streets paved...
...story cottage under a geodesic dome. Smith serves not only as pastor but also as school principal, ombudsman and civic planner. How, he prods a meeting of neighborhood residents, can we get more water pipes extended into the houses? When he walks his rounds through the back streets of Mamelodi, youngsters playing soccer call out the one word that is both recognition and greeting: "Smith! Smith...
...effort to spread his idea of community, Smith got 200 other whites to come to Mamelodi last March and spend four days living with black families. That too was regarded by traditionalists as a threat. There was talk that white youths might invade the township and attack the visitors. Smith regarded the possibility calmly. "Some people say they may beat us up. Maybe, for the sake of justice, whites must experience what it means to be beaten up." The sense of sin to be expiated is never far from Smith's mind. "When I walk around the township," he says...