Beyers Naudé
| Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé | |
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| Born |
10 May 1915 Roodepoort, Transvaal, South Africa |
| Died | 7 September 2004 (aged 89) Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Occupation | cleric |
| Known for | anti-apartheid activist |
| Spouse(s) | Ilse Hedwig Weder |
| Parent(s) | Jozua François Naudé and Adriana Johanna Zondagh van Huyssteen |
Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé (10 May 1915 – 7 September 2004) was a South African cleric, theologian and the leading Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist. He was known simply as Beyers Naudé, or more colloquially, Oom Bey (Afrikaans, Uncle Bey).
One of eight children, Beyers Naudé was born to Jozua François Naudé and Adriana Johanna Naude (nee) van Huysteen in Roodepoort, Transvaal (now Gauteng). The progenitor of the Naudé name was a French Huguenot refugee named Jacques Naudé who arrived in the Cape in 1718. The Naudé surname is one of numerous French surnames that retained their original spelling in South Africa. Beyers Naudé was named for General Christiaan Frederick Beyers, under whom his father had served as a soldier and unofficial pastor during the second Anglo-Boer War.
Jozua Naudé, an Afrikaner cleric, "was convinced that the British would never leave." He helped found and was the first chairperson of the Broederbond (Afrikaans, "Brotherhood" or "League of Brothers"), the powerful Afrikaner men's secret society that played a dominant role in apartheid South Africa. The Broederbond became especially synonymous with the Afrikaner-dominated National Party that won power in 1948 and implemented the racial segregation policy of apartheid. The elder Naudé also helped produce the earliest translations of the Bible into Afrikaans.
In 1921, the Naudé family moved to the Cape Province town of Graaff-Reinet, in the Karoo region. Beyers Naudé attended Afrikaans Hoërskool [Afrikaans High School], matriculating in 1931. Naudé studied theology at the University of Stellenbosch and lived at Wilgenhof men's residence. He graduated in 1939 with an MA in languages and a theology degree. His sociology lecturer was the future prime minister and chief-architect of apartheid, H.F. Verwoerd. But Naudé credited Stellenbosch theologian Ben Keet with laying the groundwork for his own theological dissent.
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