The church must become the people of Soweto : Manas Buthelezi’s existential-Christocentric understanding of the church

The aim of this study has been to discern what Manas Buthelezi (1935-), a black South African Lutheran theologian and later also a bishop, regards as the requirements a church has to fulfill in order to be credible in the apartheid society. Buthelezi’s dissertation and several articles written between the years 1968 and 1993 are the sources of this study. Also the lectures held in Heidelberg in 1972 are referred to. Systematic analysis is the method used. The question of the credibility of the church is studied through three concepts that play an important role in Buthelezi’s ecclesiological thought, namely the wholeness of life, incarnation and liberation. The notion of the wholeness of life stems from the African tradition. Buthelezi takes the concept into the Christian church: the church should realize that God is the Creator of all life and Christ the lord of every aspect of human existence. Life is one entity coram Deo. However, the church is not to become the world; solidarity between the two must remain critical as the church is also called to play a prophetic role in the society. The church is in an open relationship with the world. It has a unique message of forgiveness and reconciliation. Nevertheless, the message is not a possession of the church but it is addressed to the whole world. The meaning of incarnation comes close to that of the wholeness of life. Following the example of Christ’s incarnation, the church must become human in the reality of the people. The church in Soweto is to become the people of Soweto, that is, the church must become as vulnerable as the people are. An incarnate church cannot be immune to the oppression that people experience, because the people are the church. The church is therefore bound to suffer. Buthelezi’s theology of the cross is pragmatic: the suffering of the church aims at the liberation of the oppressed. At times the physical presence of the church by the side of the suffering people is the only way to preach the incarnate gospel. In the South Africa of the late 1960s onwards the liberation of the oppressed black people was high on the agenda of Black Theology. As a leader of the early South African Black Theology, Buthelezi is concerned about the racial injustice in his country. He urges the churches to join the struggle against it as one people of God. The notions of liberation and the wholeness of life emerge in Buthelezi’s holistic understanding of liberation that involves the inner liberation of the black spirit and the liberation of the economic, social and political aspects of life. Interpreting Tillich’s correlation method in the South African situation, and also paralleling other liberation theologians, Buthelezi takes the existential situation of the people as the starting point for liberation. The gospel has to respond to the existential questions of people. The church is called to work for the liberation of society but it must also be liberated itself. Buthelezi initiated the LWF statement on the status confessionis in South Africa (1977). In line with the statement, he calls for church unity on the human level. For the unity to be true, it has to be experienced on the grassroots’ level. All the three concepts covered urge the church to come down from any ivory tower and out of any spiritual haven it might hide in. A lot of the credibility of the church derives from the behavior of the people. Buthelezi’s concentration on how the people who constitute the church should live their faith leaves less attention to how God constitutes the church. I have labeled Buthelezi’s understanding of the church existential-Christocentric due to the emphasis he lays on the need of the church to take the existential situation of the people seriously and on the other hand, on Christ as the exemplar for the church.

Ihmisoikeusperusteista ulkopolitiikkaa : kansalaisjärjestöjen vaikutus Suomen suhtautumiseen Etelä-Afrikan järjestelmälliseen rotuerotteluun vuosina 1985-1987.

Apartheid eli rotuerottelupolitiikka sai virallisen statuksen Etelä-Afrikassa vuonna 1948. Merkittävimpänä Etelä-Afrikan sisäisenä apartheidpolitiikkaa vastustavana järjestönä profiloitui African National Congress. ANC:n ja kommunistien yhteydet pitivät johtavat länsivallat ja Etelä-Afrikan tärkeimmät kauppakumppanit Yhdysvallat ja Iso-Britannian puuttumatta maan sisäisiin asioihin. 1960-luvulla ANC:n toiminta meni maan alle ja kansainvälinen antiapartheidliikehdintä sai paljon nostetta.Suomessa Etelä-Afrikan apartheidpolitiikan vastustus tuli osaksi 60-luvun vasemmistopainotteisten opiskelijaliikkeiden retoriikkaa, mutta 1980-luvulle tultaessa antiapartheid-liikkeen suomalainen haara koostui sekä vasemmistolaisista että oikeistolaisista jäsenistä. Myös kirkon merkittävä rooli tässä ulkopoliittisessa kysymyksessä on merkittävä. Tutkin kansalaisjärjestöjen vaikutusmahdollisuuksia ulkopolitiikkaan ja yleensäkin Suomen ulkopolitiikassa tapahtunutta murrosta realismista ihmisoikeudelliseen lähestymistapaan. Olen tullut johtopäätökseen, että tarkastelemani ajanjakson maailmanpoliittinen tilanne ei vaikuttanut totutun lailla Suomen ulkopoliittiseen päätöksentekoon: käsitteenä suomettumattomuus kuvaa tilannetta hyvin. Apartheidkysymys ei ollut taloudellisesti merkittävä, sillä kauppa Suomen ja Etelä-Afrikan välillä oli todella pientä. Aikanaan sitä kuitenkin käytettiin perusteluna suhteiden jatkamiselle ja tutkijalle tulikin käsitys, että pelaajina tässä olivat lähinnä antiapartheid-liike, kirkko sekä ay-liike yhtenä rintamana elinkeinoelämää vastaan. Elinkeinoelämän edustajana tässä nähtiin reaalipolitiikkaan tukeutunut ulkoministeriö. Suomen ihmisoikeuspolitiikka oli näkymätöntä verrattuna muihin Pohjoismaihin ja se kulki lähes aina YK:n kautta universaalisuusperiaatteeseen ja puolueettomuuspolitiikkaan vedoten. Monenkeskisessä maailmassa poliittinen mahdollisuusrakenne muuttui ja kolmannen sektorin toimijat saivat ulkopoliittista painoarvoa. Suomi kielsi Etelä-Afrikan kaupan vuonna 1987 kansalaisyhteiskunnasta kaikuneiden vaatimusten takia. Suurimpina toimijoina olivat Auto- ja Kuljetusalan Työntekijäliitto AKT, Eristetään Etelä-Afrikka kampanja EELAK ja Suomen luterilainen kirkko. AKT:n tavarankuljetusboikotti 1985 oli merkittävin konkreettinen toimenpide, jolla hallitusta painostettiin lopettamaan Etelä-Afrikan kauppa. Kyseessä oli ensimmäinen kerta, kun kansalaisjärjestöillä oli merkittävää vaikutusta Suomen ulkopolitiikkaan ja ainoa kerta, kun Suomi on asettanut jonkun maan talousboikottiin ilman YK:n turvallisuusneuvoston yksimielistä päätöstä. Tutkimus koostuu kansalaisjärjestöaktiivien haastatteluista ja aikaisemman tutkimuskirjallisuuden sekä viranomaislähteiden analyysistä. Ihmisoikeuksien ja yleisen mielipiteen vaikutus ulkopolitiikan hoitoon kylmän sodan liennytysvaiheessa tulee ilmi myös kansainvälisten suhteiden turbulenssi-teoriaa soveltamalla. Suomalainen kehitys antiapartheidliikehdinnässä kulki Pohjoismaiden perässä.

The Tourism-Development Nexus in Namibia : A Study on National Tourism Policy and Local Tourism Enterprises' Policy Knowledge

The tourism development nexus in southern Africa involves highly topical issues related to tourism planning, power relations, community participation, and natural resources. Namibia offers a particularly interesting context for the study of these issues due to its colonial legacy, vast tourism potential, recently adopted tourism policy and community-based approaches to tourism and natural resource management. This study is an interdisciplinary endeavour to analyse the role of tourism in Namibia s post-apartheid transformation process by focusing on Namibian tourism policy and local tourism enterprises' policy knowledge. Major attention is paid to how the tourism policy's national development objectives are understood and conceptualised by the representatives of different tourism enterprises and the ways in which they relate to the practical needs of the enterprises. Through such local policy knowledge the study explores various opportunities, challenges and constraints related to the promotion of tourism as a development strategy. The study utilises a political economy approach to tourism and development through three current and interrelated discourses which are relevant in the Namibian context. These are tourism, power and inequality, tourism and sustainable development, and tourism and poverty reduction. The qualitative research material was gathered in Namibia in 2006-2007 and 2008. This material consists of 34 semi-structured interviews in 16 tourism enterprises, including private trophy hunting farms and private lodges, small tour operators and community-based tourism enterprises. In addition, the research material consists of observations in the enterprises, and 37 informal and 23 expert interviews. The findings indicate that in the light of local tourism enterprises the tourism policy objectives appear more complex and ambiguous. Furthermore, they involve multiple meanings and interpretations which reflect the socio-economic stratification of the informants and Namibian society, together with the professional stratification of the tourism enterprises and restrictions on the capacity of tourism to address the development objectives. In the light of such findings it is obvious that aspects of power and inequality affect the tourism development nexus in Namibia. The study concludes that, as in the case of other southern African countries, in order to promote sustainable development and reduce poverty, Namibia should not only target tourism growth but pay attention to who benefits from that growth and how. From a political economy point of view, it is important that prevailing structural challenges are addressed equally in the planning of tourism, development and natural resource management. Such approach would help the Namibian majority to enjoy the benefits of increasing tourism in the country.