Theological Reflection in South Africa January 2 – 27, 2015 University of St. Thomas St. Paul, Minnesota Instructors: Rev. Richard Cogill Dr. Kimberly Vrudny

AIDS, Apartheid, & �the Arts of Resistance

THE TEAM

Rev. Richard Cogill St. George’s Cathedral Cape Town

Dr. Kimberly Vrudny University of St. Thomas St. Paul

Rev. Cogill’s PREPARATION

Dr. Vrudny’s PREPARATION

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IntroductionOn June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Con-trol (CDC) published a report about five cases

of a rare strain of pneumonia among previ-ously healthy men in Los Angeles. The CDC assigned a team to investigate the cause of the outbreak.1 Within months, the CDC was aware

PrefaceThe close of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries were marked by perhaps one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies in recorded human history. At the time of this writing, well over 25 million people globally have died from AIDS and more than 33 mil-lion men, women, and children are currently living with an HIV infection. The direct effects of HIV/AIDS on families and communities continue to be felt by millions around the globe, often disproportionately among the poor and marginalized. So why is the next generation learning so little about HIV/AIDS? In this chapter, Kimberly Vrudny provides readers with a foundation for understanding why HIV is concentrated in the poorest regions of the world, as well as religious foundations for responding to HIV/AIDS as an issue of social justice.

Chapter Goals• Provide a scientific overview of HIV/AIDS

in poverty, women, and people of color

HIV/AIDS

Religion, Ethics, and AIDSKIMBERLY VRUDNYUniversity of St. Thomas

5C H A P T E R

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Pneumocystic Pneumonia—Los Angeles,” MMWR Weekly, 30, no. 21 ( June 5, 1981): 1–3, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/june_5.htm.

From Religious and Ethical Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century, Paul O. Myhre, editor (Winona, MN: Anselm Academic 2013.) Copyright © 2013 by Anselm Academic. Used by permission of the publisher.

The Course of Study

AIDS, Apartheid, and the Arts of Resistance, January-term 2015, page 1

THEO. 489 AIDS, APARTHEID, AND THE ARTS OF RESISTANCE: THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION IN SOUTH AFRICA Johannesburg • Pretoria • Cape Town • Guguletu • Hermanus University of St. Thomas J-term 2015 Instructors:

Richard Cogill, Priest in the Western Cape South African Diocese of the Anglican Communion Kimberly Vrudny, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, University of St. Thomas

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Through analysis of works of artistic resistance, students in this course will examine the interrelationships between two catastrophes of the modern era in South Africa: Apartheid and AIDS, especially attentive to the impact of the correlation between the two on the lives of women. Students will approach works of art with theological lenses to explore such themes as lament, imago Dei, prophecy, theodicy, justice/charity, memory, storytelling, kairos, covenant, forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope. Artistic examples will be drawn from the visual arts (both “fine-” and “folk-“ styles), music, literature (novel and poetry), and film. Students will learn about the arts of resistance through studio tours, guest lectures, and site visits in Johannesburg and Cape Town and their surrounding areas. Students will participate in the arts of resistance by service work conducted at the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg, the Scalabrini Center in Cape Town, and St. Luke’s Hospice in Guguletu. Students will integrate the dimensions of the course by reflecting on a theological theme by reference to works of visual art, music, literature, and film.

ACADEMICS

COURSE TEXTS

Community

ACCOMMODATION

St. Peter’s Lodge

Kolbe House

Homestays

Volmoed

THE ARTS

it is said that poets write of beauty of form, of flowers, and of love but the words i write are of pain and rage i am no minstrel who sings songs of joy mine a lament I wail of a land hideous with open graves waiting for the slaughtered ones balladeers strum their lutes and sing tunes of happy times I cannot join their merriment my heart drowned in bitterness with the agony of what white man’s law has done

Literature | Poetry: JAMES MATTHEWS

Literature | Novel: ALAN PATON

Music | Documentary: AMANDLA!

Visual Arts: SUE WILLIAMSON

Visual Arts: DIANE VICTOR

Visual Arts: KIM BERMAN

Film: BEAT THE DRUM | YESTERDAY

ITINERARY

Regina Mundi Church

Hector Pieterson Museum

Walter Sisulu Square

Voortrekker Monument

Freedom Park

Nizamiye Masjid Mosque

Constitution Hill

Central Methodist Mission

Liliesleaf

District 6

Cape Point

Boulder’s Penguin Colony

Sunny Cove Manor

Zwane Center

Guguletu

Philani Weaving Project

St. Luke’s Hospice

These Numbers Have Faces

Scalabrini Centre

Table Mountain

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Monkeybiz

Streetwires

Bokaap, Cape Town

Kirstenbosch Gardens

Institute for the Healing of Memories

Robben Island

HOPE Cape Town | Tygerberg Hospital

Film School Africa

Aquila Safari

Volmoed Retreat

Franschhoek | Moyo

Fees and Tuition

QUESTIONS?

FINAL THOUGHTS . . . There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by non-violent methods most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of activists neutralizes their work for peace. It destroys their own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fullness of their own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

—Thomas Merton