Silence, disobedience, and African Catholic sisters in apartheid South Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Silence, disobedience, and African Catholic sisters in apartheid South Africa
Author:	Higgs, Catherine
Year:	2011
Periodical:	African Studies Review (ISSN 1555-2462)
Volume:	54
Issue:	2
Pages:	1-22
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	Christian orders black women Catholic Church apartheid
External link:	http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/african_studies_review/v054/54.2.higgs.pdf
Abstract:	This article considers the choices made during the apartheid era in South Africa by Catholic sisters who were members of one of the largest orders for African women, the Montebello Dominicans, based in KwaZulu-Natal, and one of the smallest orders, the Companions of Saint Angela, based in Soweto, the sprawling African township to the southwest of Johannesburg. The Montebellos took an apolitical stance and embraced 'silence,' but they could not avoid the political tensions that defined KwaZulu-Natal. The Companions became activists, whose 'disobedience' brought them into direct confrontation with the State. History, region, ethnicity, and timing help explain what it meant for African women religious to be apolitical, and what it meant to be politicized, in the context of State repression so effective that every action could be interpreted as a political act. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]