Read Oral History #219. Available in English.
I’m from Soweto, from Molapo. We still lived with my grandmother [when we joined the church]. And there are two of us. There’s me and my younger brother. Now we have moved to my mother’s house, which is not very far [away]. Growing up, I think I was a very quiet kid, but really naughty on the side. I started my primary school near where we lived, and then I did my secondary school just near where we lived and then we decided to pull me up so that I can learn English. And that’s when I completed my metric and started high school which was in Sandton which was very far, but I took the bus. I was raised by a very strong single parent.
…As long as we can see each other as you being white and me being black, then there will be a difference. But I like how the religion is doing it, you know, the church is doing it as we are all brothers and sisters and we are children of the Lord. Why are we black and white? I may not be able to understand it or explain it, but with the privilege of the Lord I am given all the privileges. But the world’s view is different…. I remember just two weeks back, I was with my friends from church and the topic [came up] of why Priesthood was not given to black people and women. The black people first, and it [the discussion] just went on and on and I just thought to myself, ‘I think we were not ready for it.’ And also where we were, we can’t blame God for that. But it was where we stayed that didn’t allow … a black person to be recognized as a human being…