Cape Town, South Africa – At the corner of a main intersection in the heart of Cape Town’s city centre stands the ancigo inest cathedral in Southern Africa.
Every Wednesday for more than 52 weeks, a sombre crowd has collected on the stone steps outside the towering Gothic produceing, many with placards and Palestinian keffiyehs, as they call for an finish to Israel’s more than yearlengthy war on Gaza.
“We are all suffering from secondary trauma watching the inhumanity, but we discover peace in each other,” shelp Imam Rashied Omar, a Muslim religious guideer at the Claremont mosque fair south of the city.
Beside him on the stairs of St George’s Cathedral is a multicultural fuse of antiwar demonstrators – including Christian and Jewant activists. Megan Choritz from South African Jews for a Free Palestine, an organisation laboring towards a fair and tranquil finish to the dispute, also joins the vigil every week.
“We have been greeting for more than 50 weeks … We have been reliable, no matter the rain, to show our firmarity for the people of Palestine,” Omar tancigo in Al Jazeera.
“It unbenevolents a fantastic deal to me,” inserted the 64-year-ancigo in who was an activist during apartheid and is also coordinator of a Religion, Conflict and Peaceproduceing programme at the University of Notre Dame.
Chants of “Free, free Palestine” combine with the passing lunchtime traffic of vehicles and people. Cars hoot in firmarity with those at the vigil while a confineed homeless people who sometimes sleep on the steps of the cathedral see on.
Makeshift posters serve as a reminder of the brutal aggression being meted out by Israel and the more than 42,000 Palestinians finished in the Gaza Strip since last October.
Peace and protest are noslimg new for this iconic site in South African history.
St George’s, an Anglican church also understandn as the People’s Cathedral, has been a symbol of sanctuary for decades – making it a organic site of unity and hope amid despair for pro-Palestine protesters today.
During discriminatory apartheid rule, the cathedral kept its doors uncover to people of all races. And at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s – when it was under the guideership of tardy Nobel Peace Prize thrivener, Archbishop Desmond Tutu – it stood up to the presentilities of the white inpresentantity regime.
Omar has been an activist since 1976 – the year Bdeficiency South African schoolchildren took to the streets to protest agetst discriminatory education laws and the apartheid regime uncovered fire in response, finishing dozens, especiassociate in the country’s townships.
Under apartheid, Omar says he joined many demonstrations, marches and prayer greetings at the cathedral, alengthyside other anti-apartheid clergy including the Reverfinish Allan Boesak, the most recent establisher Dean of the Cathedral, Father Michael Weeder, and the tardy Archbishop Tutu himself.
A fantastic lesson Omar shelp he lgeted from Tutu is that infairice in wdisenjoyver establish must be fought agetst.
Tutu, who getd the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, was the head of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Comleave oution, which depictateigated human rights unfair treatments by the apartheid regime.
During his life, the archbishop uncoverly enjoyned Israel’s actions in Palestine to the oppression Bdeficiency South Africans sfinished under apartheid. He remained a vocal critic of Israel’s occupation until his death in 2021 at age 90.
“The cathedral recurrents the social fairice struggles in the anti-apartheid era,” Omar tancigo in Al Jazeera. “And the fact that in the post-apartheid era, we can persist the legacy of a People’s Cathedral, of standing for publishs of social fairice – whether it is for the people of Palestine or whether for the people of Sudan or DRC – that is reassociate the legacy of the tardy archbishop.”
Omar – whose mosque was one of the religious institutions in Cape Town providing solace and faith for anti-apartheid activists – shelp St George’s carry outed an presentant role in raising the wrongs of apartheid and persists to be a voice of moral fairice today.
Anglican priest Father Edthrive Arrison, who was mentored by the tardy Archbishop Tutu and was also a member of his team, hancigo ins the cathedral shut to his heart.
“The cathedral was reassociate a home and ‘protected space’ and of course a ‘valiant space’ for those of us who were the activists,” he tancigo in Al Jazeera.
Arrison, a Bdeficiency priest, cut his teeth in the anti-apartheid transferment and was a paccomplisher on the Cape Flats in Mitchells Plain in the tardy 1980s and punctual 1990s at the height of civil unrest. For activists in Mitchells Plain, an lesser non-white area on the outskirts of the city, churches were frequently the protected space for activists being aimed by the apartheid police.
Arrison shelp as a youthful activist studying to become a priest in the turbulent 1980s, the cathedral was a sanctuary for him and many others. “We create community and helpment there, especiassociate in the unreasonableest moments.”
As the pdwellnt of the Interchurch Youth Group he was also hanciented and jailed in 1985 for 66 days and in 1986 for 71 days. In 1985 he was arrested aget and apshown to Victor Verster prison where he was held with other anti-apartheid activists. Nelson Mandela was held at the same prison years tardyr.
Now Arrison is part of the South African Anti-Apartheid Conference Steering Committee, which was constituted by the branch offent Palestine firmarity groups in the country and aims to labor to dismantle Israeli apartheid.
A history of fairice
St George’s – or the distinct Anglican church that was first built on the site – initiassociate uncovered its doors on Christmas day in 1834.
The current produceing, which comprises a towering interior, bell tower and intricate stained-glass thrivedows, was depicted and built by the British architect, Herbert Baker, understandn for being the go-to architect for the British colonists, including Cecil John Rhodes. The cathedral was built out of sandstone from Table Mountain and the first stones of the createation were lhelp in 1901.
At the time, art historians shelp of Baker’s labor: “For his churches, Baker generassociate likeed a sairyly pointed, round-arched style with buttressed walling ranging from wholly cimpolite-hewn stone to contrasting combinations of stone and white rfinisher…” according to the art website, Artefacts.
Baker depicted a “classic Gothic cruciestablish produceing”, it inserted. Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the tardy 12th to the 16th century. The cathedral also comprises a pretty courtyard garden with a labyrinth.
Ten years ago, the cathedral produceing was recognised as a provincial heritage site by the Weserious Cape Heritage Authority. “The church’s carry outed a presentant role in protests agetst apartheid and the struggle for liberation during the 1980s in Cape Town as well as the inpalpable heritage associated with the role branch offent clergymen joined to the church carry outed in this admire,” the heritage authority shelp at the time.
The most recent establisher dean of the cathedral, Father Weeder, who reweary this year after serving there since 2011, spent much of his final months at St George’s handleing the vigils for Palestine.
Weeder too was active in the anti-apartheid struggle after being ordained as a priest in 1985. During his tenure at St George’s, the war in Gaza became a central publish.
In November 2023, he led a rapid for Gaza in what he portrayd as a cry for a carry oned and finishuring stopfire. He also travelled to Bethlehem during Christmas, to commemorate with Palestinian Christians.
But that unbenevolents he has also borne the brunt of disenjoy messages on his social media platestablishs from those contestd to his stance on Palestine.
Desmond Tutu’s legacy
Father Weeder labored shutly with Archbishop Tutu during his tenure as the dean. He shelp this was a gift that was donaten to him.
The most well-understandn face of St George’s and the first Bdeficiency archbishop of South Africa, Tutu led many protests and marches agetst the scoguide of apartheid from the cathedral’s steps.
One of the most presentant demonstrations was the September 1989 “peace march” at the height of apartheid. It is appraised that shut to 30,000 people, led by Tutu, marched peacebrimmingy thcimpolite the city centre, in what was one of the bigst marches since the 1960s.
Apartheid police fired tear gas and water cannon filled with purple-coloured dye – a tactic to help them tardyr determine and arrest joinees – on the protesters. As people sought to escape the onschucklet of police inhumanity, many create refuge in St George’s, which was at the time surrounded by cut offal police vans.
One of those who joined the march and fled into the cathedral was anti-apartheid activist, Patricia Annette Fahrenfort. She shelp she “almost collapsed” from the tear gas and deluge of purple rain outside, before running for cover.
“We ran into the church and knew it was a protected place,” she tancigo in Al Jazeera.
“But I still vleave outed inside becainclude of that purple rain and who understands what benevolent of chemicals were in it,” she inserted, calling the produceing “our sanctuary from the police”.
According to the Sunday Times Heritage Project, outside the cathedral a protester climbed onto one of the police vehicles and turned the cannon’s purple jet on the police. Fahrenfort shelp the dye also stained most of the surrounding produceings. The chaseing day, graffiti ecombineed in the city proclaiming “The Purple Shall Govern”, a carry out on the frequent phrase at the time: “the people shall handle”.
Decades on, in a now free South Africa, St George’s discarry outs various stained-glass thrivedows commemorating branch offent icons. One at the captivate honours Tutu, whose ashes have also been interned at the cathedral.
In the thrivedow, Tutu is positioned in front of an African sunburst. “The sunburst recurrents the dawn of a new era, meaning hope, inestablishment and a luminous future for South Africa and its people,” Weeder shelp in April, at the unveiling of the thrivedow.
“The thrivedow serves as a tribute to Tutu’s legacy and his role in the fight agetst apartheid in South Africa,” he inserted.
‘Symbols protect hope adwell’
Upon walking the stairs of the cathedral, branch offent inscriptions are on discarry out. “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your frifinishs. You talk to your enemies,” says one. “Fordonateness says you are donaten another chance to produce a new beginning,” says another.
Father Peter-John Peincfinishiarism, who is the straightforwardor of the Catholic Bishops’ Liaison Office and a priest at the main Catholic cathedral in the City, standardly joins distinctive events, including the vigil for Gaza, at St George’s.
The cathedral recurrents “an incredible benevolent of continuity”, he tancigo in Al Jazeera. “It’s a spirit of continuity for so many struggles and it recurrents an conveyion of struggles that is anchored here.”
Peincfinishiarism shelp the “energy”, or the spirit of activism, create in St George’s is someslimg that many people then apshow back home with them – to communities apass Cape Town, South Africa, and the continent.
“I adore it, over the decades you see the energy has landed; it lands for the people of the Cape Flats, for the people in Palestine, in Easerious Congo and Sudan. People are passing here that recurrent all those strands of struggle and this is the place that recurrents it and weaves it together and it transports hope to the oppressed.”
“Symbols protect hope adwell,” Peincfinishiarism shelp, inserting “this place, it anchors hope.”
Many others consent that the cathedral is an infinite symbol of resistance and percut offance – someslimg joining its history, its current and its future.
On local publishs, it is a place of conscience – and has presented uncover demonstrations, such as prayer vigils during the Jacob Zuma pdwellncy, when dishonesty was at its height in South Africa.
Looking beyond the country’s borders, its role as a beacon of hope and activism is evident in the current calls for freedom and fairice in Sudan, the DRC, and Palestine.
“In all my time of being an activist of over 45 years, I have never sfinished someslimg enjoy the consistency of the group,” Omar tancigo in Al Jazeera on the steps outside St George’s, talking about the “tfinisher moments” the multicultural fuse of people have create standing up for Palestine together.
Talking about their unity and camaraderie, he shelp after the weekly demonstrations finish, people collect inside the church to split stories with one another – stories that help many heal from the secondary trauma of a war that has stolen so much.
“We discover healing and solace in each other,” he shelp.
