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South African Speaker Shares Journey
Wilhelm Verwoerd spoke to the Woodberry Forest School community in St. Andrew's Chapel on September 20, 2015, about his journey of reconciliation. He was born and grew up in South Africa in the days of Apartheid as a member of a prominent white Afrikaner family and the grandson of former Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, known as the "Architect of Apartheid."
He told the story of growing up in a wholly white, Afrikaans-speaking community. While attending university in the Netherlands, Wilhelm lived with black South Africans and learned for the first time an alternate interpretation of the history of his home country and the true meaning of Christianity. He described the painful break with his own family that came in the early 1990s when he joined the African National Congress and met Nelson Mandela. Acknowledging the struggle that comes with discarding fear and anger, Wilhelm said after such a loss, a part of one awakens. "The glory of God," he told students, "is a human being fully alive."
Wilhelm Verwoerd has worked as a researcher within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and served as a lecturer in political philosophy and applied ethics at the University of Stellenbosch. His personal and professional journey of reconciliation took him to Ireland, where from 2002 to 2011 he worked as a coordinator of and facilitator within the Glencree Survivors and Former Combatants program. He is currently coordinating and co-facilitating an international “Beyond Dehumanisation” research project aimed at gathering practical wisdom from experienced reconciliation practitioners and former combatants/survivors in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Israel-Palestine, and the USA. Wilhelm is the author of My Winds of Change. He has an MA from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of Johannesburg. He is a Director of Beyond Walls Ltd. and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Capetown.
Wilhelm Verwoerd's visit to Woodberry Forest was funded through the Noland Distinguished Visitor Fund. His visit includes several small group and class meetings with students.
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He told the story of growing up in a wholly white, Afrikaans-speaking community. While attending university in the Netherlands, Wilhelm lived with black South Africans and learned for the first time an alternate interpretation of the history of his home country and the true meaning of Christianity. He described the painful break with his own family that came in the early 1990s when he joined the African National Congress and met Nelson Mandela. Acknowledging the struggle that comes with discarding fear and anger, Wilhelm said after such a loss, a part of one awakens. "The glory of God," he told students, "is a human being fully alive."
Wilhelm Verwoerd has worked as a researcher within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and served as a lecturer in political philosophy and applied ethics at the University of Stellenbosch. His personal and professional journey of reconciliation took him to Ireland, where from 2002 to 2011 he worked as a coordinator of and facilitator within the Glencree Survivors and Former Combatants program. He is currently coordinating and co-facilitating an international “Beyond Dehumanisation” research project aimed at gathering practical wisdom from experienced reconciliation practitioners and former combatants/survivors in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Israel-Palestine, and the USA. Wilhelm is the author of My Winds of Change. He has an MA from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of Johannesburg. He is a Director of Beyond Walls Ltd. and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Capetown.
Wilhelm Verwoerd's visit to Woodberry Forest was funded through the Noland Distinguished Visitor Fund. His visit includes several small group and class meetings with students.
Woodberry Forest School is an exceptional private school community for high school boys in grades nine through twelve. It is one of the top boarding schools in the United States and one of the only all-boys, all-boarding schools in the country.
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