North Kivu: Official launch in Goma of the Swahili version ‘Redeeming the past : my journey from freedom fighter to healer’ of father Lapsley.
The Martin Luther King Group, a non-profit organisation, will have the privilege of publishing the very first African Swahili-language version of the book ‘Healing the Past, From the Struggle for Freedom to Working for Peace’, a book of Michael Lapsley.
By Prosper HERI NGORORA
20 September 2024
Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo-The Martin Luther King Group, a non-profit organisation working in the Democratic Republic of Congo, says it has achieved an unprecedented feat.
It is the translation into Swahili of the book ‘Redeeming the past : my journey from freedom fighter to healer’ by Father Michael Lapsley. The very first original publication of this book stems back in 2012.
The official launch of the Swahili version will take place on Saturday 21 September 2024, International Day of Peace.
According to Christophe Mutaka, director of the group, this book is also important in a context where the east of the DRC has been torn apart by war for several years now.
‘It’s important for us to revisit our past, to find out what traumatic events took place and to try to heal them. This book comes at the right time, because it responds to a need for healing,’ he says.
He adds that, in the face of the wounds caused by the horrors of war, human cruelty, inequality and other crimes against humanity, this book is a lifeline for anyone haunted by a painful past in the eastern part of the DRC.
In his view, the Swahili version of the book is necessary for the people of eastern Congo, who have watched helplessly as scenes of violence have unfolded in recent years.
The Martin Luther King Group is committed to organising workshops in the near future to heal memories, as well as awareness-raising campaigns for people affected by traumatic events.
Healing the past, from the fight for freedom to working for peace is a book by Michael Lapsley, born in 1949.
An Anglican priest, he arrived in Durban, South Africa, in 1973, at a time when Apatheid was in full swing in Nelson Mandela’s country.
Shortly afterwards, at the height of apartheid repression, he became chaplain to the students of Durban’s black and white universities.
In 1976, he began to speak on behalf of the schoolchildren who were shot, detained and tortured by the Apartheid oppressors.
On 28 April 1990, three months after Nelson Mandela’s release, Michael Lapsley lost his hands and an eye in a parcel bomb attack in Zimbabwe.
A chaplain for the ANC in exile, he paid dearly for his commitment to apartheid and remains one of the few white people to have spoken out against the separate development of the races, which was becoming institutionalised in South Africa before its abolition in 1991.
Since then, his hands have been metal hooks, but he has relentlessly pursued his fight for peace and freedom.
In 1998, he founded the Institute for the Healing of Memories in Cape Town, dedicated to helping victims of various forms of violence and oppression. Drawing on his experience, Michael Lapsley also runs workshops for people scarred by a painful past, including prisoners, refugees and AIDS sufferers, in Rwanda and the United States, as well as in Northern Ireland and Colombia. ‘Michael Lapsley describes the refusal to be broken, in body, mind and spirit.
