We act:
Hearing Peace

We are far from that. That is the answer I would like to give most. But I feel my discomfort. Racism exists in all social contexts and structures. Why should a mission organisation be exempt from it?

If we look at the past, there was clear racism from today’s perspective. The people in the area of our partner churches today were called “poor heathens”, whom the missionaries of the mission work assumed could not be saved without the gospel. The logical consequence at that time was that the Gospel had to be brought to them – by white missionaries from the Lüneburg Heath.

Now this attitude may be due to a certain understanding of culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. And by a certain way of interpreting the Bible. But it is not justified by this.

Have we learned from the mistakes of the past today?

I was sent to South Africa in 2012 because the partner church needed someone with commercial and theological skills. Of course I accepted this call because the time was right for a personal change. Because South Africa had fascinated me for years. And because I felt flattered that I should be the one to save an institution of our partners from going out of business and apparently could.

Today I ask myself why we as a mission organisation did not simply provide money so that a suitable person from South Africa could be found? Did we, and I too, fall into the trap of racism? Was there not perhaps a deeply hidden assumption that a black person is not (yet) up to the task?

And is this perhaps also the reason why we do not advertise new positions in the office internationally? Not only at the management level or in theological areas, but also for accounting and administration.

That would be exhausting. It would mean intensive mentoring to come to terms with the German structures. And the German language would have to be learned. All this is very time-consuming. And it is expensive. So it is. Hand on heart: these arguments contain a racism that we are reluctant to admit.

On the way to doing it better

And wouldn’t it also be appropriate for the governing bodies to staff these diversely and thus ensure a sign of appropriate togetherness at eye level?

Speaking of eye level: It is a phrase I like to use when communicating with people from other cultures. But does it really exist when the basic conditions are so immensely different? I’m thinking of social security, income, education and freedom to travel. With my German passport I can enter South Africa without any problems. A South African woman has to apply for a cumbersome visa if she wants to travel to Germany. Isn’t there inevitably a disparity in all this and isn’t my talk of “eye level” just a cheap attempt to divert attention from racist structures that don’t allow for real eye level?

How I would like to say that there is no racism in our mission. But I cannot. It is hidden in the structures and in the way we deal with our history. But we are on the way to learn and to do better in the future.

Thomas Wojciechowski