Can we reconcile a fragmenting world?

“The greatest science is the science of the whole.” War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy. ?

PART ONE

In our recent Holos-Earth webinar held on Friday 16th December we examined the ideal of genuine reconciliation from a holistic perspective. It seems that in this week leading up to Christmas, a time of goodwill, this ideal needs deep reconsideration.?

One headline in The Economist of Friday 16th read: ‘How to save South Africa - The ruling party is unreformable. The country needs a coalition of the clean.’

Yet another headline read: ‘A looming Russian offensive - Ukraine’s chiefs ... tell The Economist about the critical months that lie ahead.’

Three countries are involved here - South Africa, Russia and Ukraine. What connects those three at this time is the consideration of the possibility of reconciliation.

On October 9 Elon Musk tweeted, looking at the prospect of Ukraine-Russia Peace: ‘Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.’ And then he starkly reminds: ‘Nuclear war probability is rising rapidly.’

Nuclear War??

This is not the place to examine Musk’s controversial tweet, other than to recognise his desire to find a peaceful solution against the dire prospect of potential nuclear war.

But is this alarmist? ?At the age of one hundred, earlier this year complexity thinker and author, Edgar Morin, made a chilling observation in an article; ’On the Edge of the Abyss or, How to Wage War on War?’, “Today, once again I see us on the brink of an abyss, and in the absolute uncertainty of tomorrow.”

Intelligence Test

My late friend Lawrence Bloom declared that we were no longer in an era of change, but rather in a change of era. He warned that humanity is facing an intelligence test, if we failed the consequences would be disastrous, if we succeeded in outcome could be unprecedented. I want to suggest that our challenge is beyond an intelligent test, as we typically understand it, this is a test of the soul of humankind calling for a metanoia.

Thinking people remember how easily things can go wrong. An assassination in Sarajevo triggered the disastrous First World War. Could Putin’s ill-begotten invasion of Ukraine trigger the Third?

And yet it doesn’t have to be that way. Reconciliation always remains a possibility - and that is where South Africa enters the picture.?Yes, this complex nation, burdened by its historic legacy, does face formidable challenges. These are increasingly recognised as a result of endemic corruption and maladministration. Nevertheless the country, under bold and imaginative leadership, showed that reconciliation was always a possibility. That is why December 16 is celebrated as the Day of National Reconciliation in South Africa.

Day of the Covenant

That holiday is even more poignant given its bloody history. On 16th December 1838 Dingaan’s huge Zulu Impi attacked Boer Settlers in Natal. It came to be known as the Battle of Blood River. The Boers had made a vow that if given the victory the day would henceforth be commemorated as the Day of the Covenant.

Whilst victory over the Zulu forces was achieved, only five years later, in 1843, Natal was proclaimed a British colony after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia.

National Reconciliation

Just over 150 years later, after the peaceful transfer of power to the democratic majority in in 1994, 16th December was subsequently renamed?the Day of National Reconciliation. Today, with its intention is to celebrate national diversity, it is a reminder that reconciliation is always a possibility.

That is why I will try to show that reconciliation is at the heart of the phenomenon known as holism. It was the author of holistic philosophy and practice, Jan Christian Smuts, who declared: “History writes the word ‘reconciliation’ over all her quarrels.” And he exemplified that quality in his personal life.

Anglo-Boer War?

He was attorney general in the Transvaal Republic of President Paul Kruger with the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899. As a Cape Afrikaner he had left the British colony in outrage at the failed Jameson Raid into Transvaal in which Cecil Rhodes was complicit. He was soon sucked into battle and became a General in the Boer forces. By 1903 he came to recognise that the fight for further independence of the two Boer Republics was over. With a combination of political and military strategy he negotiated the terms from the British demand for unconditional surrender to the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging.

He was only to aware of the disastrous consequences of the British scorched earth policy which saw Boer farm houses blown up or burnt down, crops destroyed, and animals slaughtered. He was aware of the concentration camps where the wives and children of the farmer folks who had joined the war effort were driven off their farms and incarcerated. Somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand perished from malnutrition and disease. Whilst some of the diehard Boers were prepared to fight it out to the end, Smuts not only saw that the struggle was in vain, but also recognised that, whatever the outcome, Boer and Brit would simply have to learn to co-exist. So he worked for peace - and his efforts were rewarded by the Liberal Government of Campbell-Bannerman which already granted self-governance to the Transvaal by 1905.

From socialite to humanist?

History shows that a few folks with a powerful conscience can make a significant difference. During the war a British socialite, and pacifist, Emily Hobhouse, became aware of the terrible conditions that existed in the South African concentration camps. She visited the dying young girl, Lizzie van Zyl, and made it her business to make the British public aware of the terrible conditions. For some British politicians she became known as ‘That Bloody Woman’. And she volunteered her active services. Later she wrote: “I came very naturally and in obedience to the feeling of unity or wholeness as women ... When a community has been shaken to its foundations, those abysmal depths of deprivation call to each one and that makes a deeper unity of humanity manifest.”

Eventually significant changes were brought about to address the plight of especially the suffering of the children. They made up 80% of the mortalities in the concentration camps. Notwithstanding this bitter legacy Smuts made friends with his former British enemies. ?

History shows how the combination of the discovery of gold in Johannesburg and Cecil Rhodes’ grandiose colonial ambitions, had set the stage for the war. That is probably why in sharing the stage with Smuts at the opening of the Boer Woman’s Memorial in 1913, Emily Hobhouse put her finger on the core issue:?

“In the present-day minds are strangely confused, eyes are blinded, and it is the almost universal idea that the all-important thing for a country is material prosperity. It is false.”???????????????????????

By then, under Smuts’ tireless efforts that led to a national convention, the two former Boer Republics and the British Cape and Natal colonies had been forged into the Union of SA. In essence then whilst with union in May 1910 the business of building a reconciled nation of Boer and Brit was underway, the task of reconciliation with the indigenous peoples still lay ahead. In 1912 the same African National Congress, seen as 'unreformable' today, was established to advance the African cause.

?World War One - a lesson unlearned

South Africa, now with dominion status, threw in its forces in with the Allies against Germany with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Smuts played a key strategic role, including establishing the Royal Air force.?With the defeat of Germany, leading to the Peace Treaty of Versailles, he was however aghast at the viciously punitive attitude of the victorious allies against the conquered German nation. Cambridge’s Antony Lentin, in his book ‘Jan Smuts - A Man of Courage and Vision’ highlights Smuts’ attempts at reconciliation with the Germans.

“Smuts pleaded tirelessly to obtain more reasonable terms for Germany to avoid its gratuitous humiliation ... this magnanimity, Smuts’ fight for international reconciliation, should stand as his historical legacy.”

Whilst Smuts almost singlehandedly drove the establishment of the League of Nations as an international body to settle disputes and maintain peace, his efforts for the restoration of German dignity were in vain. Sadly his warning about sowing the seeds of future conflict became true in the Second World War.

World War Two - lesson learned?

So once again he found himself on the battle front as right hand man to Winston Churchill. In his address to the Joint Houses of the British Parliament in October 1942 he already raised the idea of an new international order.

That would come about in 1944 at the San Francisco Conference where Smuts’ drafted the Preamble to the United Nations ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. His clear intention was “...to end the scourge of war.” ?His key distinction of the ‘value of human Personality’, as the fullest expression of on-going holistic evolution, was hardly grasped at the time and was simplified to the ‘worth of the person’.

This is important because it was intended to make a clear distinction between the evolution of human personality, or soul, individually and collectively, and the more mundane, albeit important physical aspects. The intention of the Bill of Rights was to enable the on-going development and ‘becoming’ of humanity through each individual in creative evolution. A spiritual process, creative holism, was at work in humankind through awakened souls - and that was sacred Personality.

South Africa and the racial question

?On finally being able to return his focus to South Africa, Smuts was able to give overdue attention to the local racial situation. In 1946 he established the Fagan Commission of Inquiry into the reality of Black South Africans. The findings of the commission were unequivocal in respect of the realty of the urbanised African population. He accepted the Commission’s findings, These included:

? Black South Africans, including women and children, should be regarded as a permanent part of the urban population.

? They would have to be taken into account in future legislatures.

? Opposed the territorial separation of the races as impractical.

? Rejected migratory labour and the idea that non-whites could only come into the towns to serve the interest of whites.

Apartheid

The National Party opposition took the opposite view that Africans should be returned to their ‘homelands’. Smuts’ described this thinking as not only unworkable but ludicrous. Sadly, in the election of 1948, Dr D. F. Malan’s National Party came to power with a minority of votes but winning a majority of constituencies. The fateful slogan, ‘Apartheid’ would put South Africa on a new and parlous trajectory.

Afrikaner nationalism?

At the opening of the Voortrekker Monument on the Day of the Covenant in 1949, a symbol of Afrikaner nationalism, Smuts, again opposition leader, addressed the huge assembled essentially Afrikaner crowd and warned:

“Only on the basis of taking from the past what was beautiful could ‘fruitful co-operation and brotherhood’ between the two white communities be built. And only on this basis could a solution be found for the greatest problem which we have inherited from our ancestors, the problem of our native relations ... the most difficult and the final test of our civilisation.’

?Racial discrimination became increasingly entrenched and the remaining political rights of folks of colour were removed, notwithstanding vigorous resistance from the white opposition. In 1960 a referendum was held whether South Africa should leave the British Commonwealth and become a Republic. This had been a deep desire with many Afrikaner folks after the loss of the Boer Republics. They won with a small majority and South Africa became a Republic in 1961.

A years later, in 1962, ANC President and Nobel Prizewinner, Albert Luthuli wrote these words:

“From the beginning our history has been one of ascending unities, the breaking up of tribal, racial and creedal barriers ... The past cannot hope to have a life sustained by itself, wrenched from the whole ... There remains before us the building of a new land, a home for men who are black, white, brown, from the ruins of the old narrow groups - a synthesis of the rich cultural strains we have inherited.”

Armed resistance

Soon however Luthuli’s commitment to non-violence, which was inspired by Gandhi and shared with Martin Luther-King, saw him replaced as leader of the ANC by the more militant Nelson Mandela. He established the armed wing, ‘Spear of the Nation’, and undertook the acts of insurrection that eventually saw him sentenced to life imprisonment.

The world is well aware of Mandela’s ‘long walk to freedom’, and F. W. De Klerk’s courageous decision to unban the ANC and other political organisations. The fundamental ‘change of heart’ led to a drive to reconciliation resulting in the election of 1994 when he became president.

?Two years later, in 1996 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission led by Bishop Desmond Tutu was established. The intention was to hear the whole truth of atrocities committed on both sides during the anti-apartheid struggle. Some senior ANC politicians were reluctant to release the full report which included accounts of ANC atrocities. They ‘resisted’ the so-called ‘demonisation of the heroic liberation struggle’. But Tutu refused to defer. It would be the whole report, the full truth, or nothing. Heart-wrenching accounts of brutality and suffering on all sides were uncovered and moving scenes of reconciliation between victims and perpetrators were recorded.

One account relates to Amy Biehl, a white American anti-apartheid activist, who despite pleas from her black co-workers, was murdered in the Guguletu township in 1993 by a mob of youth chanting ; “...one settler one bullet!”

?They were arrested and sent to prison but released after the truth a reconciliation commission agreed that their action was politically motivated. And Amy’s Christian parents who met with them supported their release. In a moving tribute at the unveiling of a memorial to her in Guguletu her father said: ?

“The most important vehicle of reconciliation is open and honest dialogue ... we are here to reconcile a human life [that] was taken without an opportunity for dialogue. When we are finished with this process we must move forward with linked arms.” ?

Even in the face of such a senseless and brutal murder, Amy’s parents were able to transcend the natural experience of anguished hatred and fully embrace reconciliation.

Holism and reconciliation

How then does reconciliation relate to the holistic perspective and practice? In her biography on Smuts (1936), Sarah Gertrude Millin describes holism as ‘the cooperation of effort’. ?She quotes Smuts’ core holistic premise on reconciliation. According to her Smuts described holism as “...the reconciliation of matter and spirit, the temporal and the eternal, the finite with the infinite, the particular with the universal.”

Millin then interprets that ideal as ‘...the reconciliation of creation with God’.

What Jan Smuts’ called the holistic principle, what Emily Hobhouse ‘...came very naturally and in obedience to the feeling of unity or wholeness as women...’, what Albert Luthuli described as ‘...ascending unities, the breaking up of tribal, racial and creedal barriers ... ?a synthesis of the rich cultural strains’, that was holistic reconciliation. That’s the recognition of nature’s synthetic drive to more complex and integrative wholeness in diversity. ?

T. J. Haarhoff put it this way in his book, ‘Smuts the Humanist’ (1970), when looking at holism and Smuts’ notion of Personality: “In Smuts’ philosophy it is a tendency making for what is ethically harmonious, of fulfilment of potentialities of development.”

And therein lies the key. This is about an inner reconciliation of the human soul with nature’s ever present and on-going evolutionary drive to self-realisation. Human soul, as Millin put it, as the ‘ ...instrument of the reconciliation of creation with God.’

Metanoia

So ultimately reconciliation is not some uncomfortable compromise to end conflict, at its deepest essence is an embrace of the fullness of cosmic evolution in which tension is an intrinsic part. The conflict itself is an invitation to transcendence, to higher order, more holistic integration. That is why Smuts said at the opening of the Voortrekker Monument ‘...only on the basis of taking from the past what was beautiful could ‘fruitful co-operation and brotherhood’... be built.” ?

Reconciliation is the essence of holism,?but true reconciliation calls for a ‘metanoia’.

This Greek word is about changing one's heart and mind, it’s about repentance. ?The word is derived from meta , 'beyond', and nous , 'of the mind'. Typically it denotes a situation in which you have had to turn from the path you were walking and take another direction.

In Part Two of this contemplation on reconciliation I will look at conflict in the word today, including Putin’s war, and the time and nature of just war, and the time and nature of holistic reconciliation.