A small church is reuniting the uprooted residents of Kofifi, writes Peter Makurube
When former residents of Sophiatown talk about their beloved Kofifi, they overdose on nostalgia. They’ve forgotten nothing – the music, the gangsters and the community spirit.
However, the story of Sophiatown would not be complete without mentioning the tiny church on Ray Street, once ministered by Father Trevor Huddleston.
This gentle giant walked the streets of the teeming ghetto fearlessly. He was a regular in the homes of the poor. To him they were deserving of dignity and respect. Not so to his most bitter foe, the apartheid government.
The bulldozers arrived early one morning in 1955, and within days the area disappeared into rubble. Streets people once walked were obliterated. Corner cafs were smashed to the ground. All of it gone with the stroke of a pen and the heartless determination of men who executed unjust laws without a conscience.
But the church, Christ The King, stood firm. Those who ordered Kofifi’s destruction must have gone to church too. What they left was more than the house of God; it became the repository of the memory of a community that once was. It also stands as a monument to truth, bravery and higher love.
The people of Sophiatown have returned to the church. “We want to bring back that community spirit which prevailed in the area around the church,” says church official Evelyn Abrahams.
After Huddleston died in April, his ashes were brought home to rest in his old church, as he had requested.
Many in the congregation now live in Soweto, while others travel from the East Rand. There are quite a few from the northern suburbs.
Abrahams explains: “We have up to 60 communities represented at a single service. For many people, it is a reconnection with their birthplace. When you have been affected by forced removals and expropriation – you have what you had. Going back to Christ The King is something to hold on to.
“We are not only restoring the building, but also spiritually and mentally those affected by the events of 1955.”
As soon as the blacks were out, the National Party government populated the area with poor whites and called the area Triomf. The new community used the church as a boxing venue.
The biggest and most expensive task now facing the congregation is restoring the original murals on the church walls which the Triomf residents covered with paint.
Later the Protestant Church bought the building and removed all symbolism of the Anglicans. The four clocks were ripped down. The altar was changed beyond recognition and the piano was replaced with a pipe organ.
“We are going to remove the organ – black voices don’t need such instruments. They are powerful enough,” says Abrahams.
A few years after the destruction of Kofifi, the government made it illegal for blacks and whites to worship together. By then the Triomf believers had long been a white island at prayer.
Although the church is in a former white area, there’s not a single white face to be seen in the congregation today. Those who worshipped there have moved on – presumably to another lily-white church.
But the Sophiatown congregation believes in spreading peace and reconciliation through community work.
“We are going on a big campaign in October, led by the parish priest, Father Thabo Makgoba. We are going door-to-door … to let the citizens of Sophiatown know we are in the area again,” says Abrahams.
“We have not been welcomed with open arms by the immediate residents in the vicinity of the church. We hope to open a crche in the spare chapel. We need to reach out to all the children trapped behind closed doors in their homes, so that they can be part of us.”
The church building has been petrol-bombed twice recently, allegedly by teenagers. While the adults might be beyond redemption, the church hopes to reach out to the children.
There is one elderly man who is prepared to assist the new congregation. “He patrols the street up to 10 times a day, just to make sure the building is not damaged or desecrated. He will do anything for us,” says Abrahams.
The congregation is raising funds for the restoration. Last Sunday acclaimed actor Ramolao Makhene staged a play – The Story I’m About to Tell – at the church. It was in keeping with the church’s tradition of working with artists, and brought in some money to buy a new piano.
The church’s officials are asking anyone with pictures of the original interior and exterior of the building to donate them. Records of the church’s activities are also needed.
A cultural day is planned for October 17, with all congregations and parishes in Gauteng invited to participate. Abrahams says the aim is to draw in the youth, “so we can help chart their future”. This is what Christ The King was known for, and what it is today.