Spiritualiteit van vrede: oorlog, vroue, lyding,

Ek het pas die dagboek van Rensche van der Walt deurgelees oor haar ervaring in die Boere-oorlog. Ek is nou besig om dit te verwerk vir 'n Spirasa aanbieding op 16 April. In my navorsing het ek op die volgende foto's afgekom.

Dit is nie 'n goeie begin vir my navorsing nie. Ek gaan spesifiek skryf oor die spiritualiteit wat vroue in sulke omstandighede aan die gang gehou het. Noudat ek die foto's gesien het, lees ek die dagboek nie weer dieselfde nie.

Wat my laat besef hoe belangrik dit is om ons te kan "inleef" in sulke omstandighede voordat 'n mens oor spiritualiteit kan praat. Die totale prentjie wat ek ook moet bedink is: 28,000 sterf in die kampe. 22 000 was kinders onder 16. Die totale bevolking was 200 000. Ongeveer 14 % van die Afrikaanssprekendes. In vandag se getalle sal dit in Suid-Afrika ongeveer 6 miljoen mense wees.


Maar stel jou voor: jy beleef hierdie gesig in die foto's en dan gaan sit jy in die aand by jou dagboek en skryf jou "ervaring" neer. Wat skryf jy? Hoe dink jy oor God as jy wil bid?

Hieroor sal my aanbieding gaan.

Ek het so pas ook Roth se Indignation gelees. Dit is 'n boek wat die lelike gesig van godsdiens sonder genade afruk. Maar wat my nog sterker geraak het, is die verskriklike beelde van geweld wat die boek oproep.

Opnuut weer, besef ek, hoe belangrik 'n spirtualiteit van vrede is.






"...(O)ne had to make little fireplaces in front of the tents - tents that must serve as sitting room, pantry, bedroom and dining room in one, and they were of a size that were but one small bed and a table therein, there was no room to turn; and then there were a number of children as well! Most of the poor women had not even brought a bedstead with them because they were seized in such haste."

"When we came, the women received eatables three times a week. Tuesday, meat; Wednesday, meal, sugar coffee, salt; and on Saturday, again meat. The food stores were not near the camp, quite ten minutes walk, and they had to carry it all. For each person there was 7lbs of meal a week, no green food and no variety; the sugar was that black stuff we would have given our horses on the farm to stop worms . . . the coffee was some mixture, no-one could rightly say what coffee it was, some said acorns, others dried peas - but it was all a very sore trial for us to bear, we, who were so used to good food, vegetables, milk and mealies." (Alida Badenhorst, translated E. Hobhouse, "Tant Alie of Transvaal: Her Diary 1880-1902", George Allen and Unwin, London, 1923).

"Worst of all, because of the poor food, and having only one kind of food without vegetables, there came a sort of scurvy amongst our people. They got a sore mouth, and a dreadful smell with it; in some cases the palate fell out and the teeth, and some of the children were full of holes or sores in the mouth. And then they died . . . the mothers could never get them anything . . . there were vegetables to be bought outside, but the head of the camp was strict and did not allow them to go out of the camp . . . For it was this day, the 1st December, that old Tant Hannie died . . . I never thought with my eyes to see such misery . . . tents emptied by death.

"I went one day to the hospital and there lay a child of nine years to wrestle alone with death. I asked where could I find the child's mother. The answer was that the mother died a week before, and the father is in Ceylon (a prisoner of war) and that very morning her sister of 11 died. I pitied the poor little sufferer as I looked upon her . . . there was not even a tear in my own eyes, for weep I could no more. I stood beside her and watched until a stupefying grief overwhelmed my soul . . . O God, be merciful and wipe us not from the face of the earth." (Alida Badenhorst, translated E. Hobhouse, "Tant Alie of Transvaal: Her Diary 1880-1902", George Allen and Unwin, London, 1923).