new book:
‘A quest for Justice and Freedom on two Continents’
Brian Brown was administrative director of the Christian Institute of Southern Africa when it and he were banned in 1977 by the apartheid regime. He was involved in the Institute’s opposition to apartheid and civil religion, its engagement with Black Consciousness, and its calls for civil disobedience and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).
In exile Brian held appointments as Africa Secretary of the British Council of Churches and the Methodist Missionary Society where he continued to promote his belief in the indivisibility of freedom.
About the book:
All South Africans under the age of 21 in 2015 belong to the ‘Born Frees’ – those who knew not apartheid. In recounting his journey Brian offers fascinating insights as to how pressures from both within and without South Africa contributed to the generation of Born Frees. His faith-inspired belief in freedom’s indivisibility was one he shared with notable activists – Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Beyers Naudé, all of whom get their chapter.
The author’s demolition of the revisionist argument that constructive-engagement policies ended apartheid is a notable contribution to truth. As is his analysis of the efficacy of BDS and of the power to transform societies through non-violent direct action. The similarities of today’s Israel with apartheid’s dispossession of ‘the other’ are clearly drawn.
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