A cholera outbreak in South Africa is more bad news for river baptisms. Baptist News Global previously documented how South Africa’s risky, informal baptisms conducted by unlicensed pastors have grown problematic due to mass causalities by drowning. Now, a cholera…
In South Africa; money marks churches, mosques as soft targets for armed robbery
It’s a shameless new trend, faith leaders say. It was not usual for armed criminals to storm faith services, rob churches and mosques in South Africa — until now. “There is no holy cow anymore,” said Pastor Drewmore Sikhosana, a…
As climate changes, South Africa’s river baptisms spell danger
Climate change is intensifying river flooding across South Africa. For indigenous Christian churches that conduct unlicensed, open-river baptisms, tragedies are mounting too. Nomusa Bandile lost a teenage daughter Dec. 7 when, during an open-river baptism by an unlicensed pastor, 14…
In South Africa, should the Anglican Church bless a new Zulu king?
In South Africa, a new Zulu king was crowned in October for the first time in 51 years — and Anglican bishops rituals to “bless” the new King have sparked furor. The 12 million Zulus are South Africa’s biggest ethnic…
As inflation hits, Africa’s largest indigenous church clings to a tea obsession
Global food inflation has not spared South Africa, but amidst the high prices, millions in Africa’s biggest indigenous church cling to a tea ritual obsession despite rising prices of ingredients. “It’s the tea of faith; a sip kicks off bad…
GenZ South Africans remix tech, African spiritualism and church
They are Gen-Z Black South Africans, highly educated, raised in typical “Christian homes,” but now flipping the script. Via aggressive use of Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, they’re re-inventing themselves as entrepreneurial “Afro-spiritualist” healers, fortune readers or dream interpreters. It’s all…
Peter Makapela: One man’s journey from racial hatred during South Africa’s apartheid years to a voice of racial reconciliation
When he was 14, Peter Makapela and his cousin Xolani joined scores of other schoolchildren in Cape Town, South Africa, to protest miserable conditions in the area’s schools for Black children. It was 1989, the height of public resistance to…
South African women’s soccer team success shines a light on gender wage discrimination
There is a lingering giddy feeling that comes with winning a major sports competition. If in doubt, ask South Africans. Since July 23, when the country’s women’s national soccer team, Banyana Banyana, won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in…
White blindness is a barrier to racial justice, Boesak tells BWA
A major obstacle to racial justice and reconciliation is white blindness to the systemic nature of racism and the refusal to acknowledge and seek redemption for past and present oppression, a South African anti-apartheid activist said during the Baptist World…