Terror tightened the native’s throat as he clutched his dying son and ran through the hot dust two miles to Africa’s Baragwanath Hospital. Instinctively he knew it was too late and upon arrival had to sadly turn homeward with the baby cold in his arms. The child had died of gastric enteritis and tears dropped in the dirt as the sobbing father carried the lifeless form.
Vusamazulu Mutwa built the crude coffin and prepared his tiny son’s body for burial. To be buried in an unknown grave or a pauper’s grave is the deepest disgrace that can befall a Bantu anywhere in Africa. But the Bantu has no access to any cemetery unless he belongs to a recognized church and the funeral is presided over by a minister. A well known authority has said, “Determination to have a proper burial is a strong reason why natives turn to Christianity.” The grief-stricken parents went to their “Christian” pastor, whose church the wife had attended many years; the father had never accepted the faith. When they asked for a funeral the pastor flatly refused, giving no reason for that denial.
Later Mutwa acidly wrote, “Strangely, the priest knew exactly what he was doing to me when he refused to bury my son, for over the years I had explained to him all the laws and customs of the Bantu. He refused simply because I was not, with the rest of my family, a member of his church.”
From this tragic experience Vusamazulu Mutwa wrote a scorching essay on “Why Christianity Has Failed in Africa.” It is part of his bitter book, “Africa Is My Witness”, which charges, “The culprits are those petty dictators and sadists who wear their white collars the wrong way round.” All of us in some small or large way have been burned by Pharisaic and rigid religion which demands observance of a legal code without human compassion.