Professor Bennie van der Walt: a bridge between white Afrikaners and black Africans

Abstract

This article honours Professor Bennie van der Walt as a bridge builder between white Afrikaners and black Africans as well as a renowned Christian scholar. Historical Western colonialism in South Africa divided its citizens against each other by means of white racism and apartheid. The whites in general were pitched against the blacks on the basis of white racism and its doctrine of apartheid. This doctrine of separation of races kept the white Afrikaners from the Bantu Africans. However, apartheid as a form of political, social, cultural and religious racism is now history in South Africa. The role which Professor Van der Walt played in bridging the gap between this racial divide is highly commendable and needs to be acknowledged and appreciated, hence the primary objective of this article in honour of his 71st birthday. Furthermore, the article discusses the immense contributions of Professor Bennie van der Walt to Christian scholarship in Africa.