Lucia – en normbrytare

Lucia var en normbrytare. Liksom i stort sett alla kristna martyrer. Enligt legenden vägrade hon gifta sig. Antingen överhuvudtaget eller just med den man som någon annan bestämde skulle bli hennes. (Eller kanske var det hon som skulle bli hans!) Hon ville heller inte tillbe kejsaren. Och så vidare.

Varje år – i luciatider – blir det ett fasligt hallå. 2010 skrev jag om detta. Och hänvisade till tre inlägg från 2009. Då förde jag bland annat en mejlkonversation med Johan Hakelius. Den som är intresserad kan läsa inlägget från 2010, där det finns länkar till inläggen från 2009. 

2009 handlade det om att Lucia i TV innehöll inslag från andra kulturer än den traditionellt svenska. (Vad nu det innebär!) I år handlar det, bland annat, om att en pojke i Östergötland valts till Lucia på sin skola. Om detta går det att läsa i Corren.

I en Facebook-tråd hittade jag länkar till ett par bloggar. Den ena, 'When darkness falls', har plockat fram kort från luciafiranden från 1906 och från 1940-talet. I luciatåget från 1906 förekommer fler än en lucia. Och i det från 1940-talet är det flickor som är klädda som stjärngossar. Dessutom finns det bagare och sotare i tåget.

Den andra bloggen, 'Född Juul – gift Raab', skrivs av en kyrkomusiker. Hon skriver:

Lucia är kidnappad. Av rasisterna, av feministerna och av alla möjliga. Om det nu verkligen är så viktigt att just Luciarollen blir tillgänglig för pojkar, då tycker jag nog att den traditionen har spelat ut sin roll. För Lucia var trots allt en kvinna. Då tycker jag att vi lägger ner vårt unkna gamla luciafirande, för att inte tala om vårt många hundra år äldre, och svenska stjärngossefirande. Låt oss istället skapa en könsneutral ljushögtid med vackra sånger om ljuset som lyser upp i mörkret.

Det är mitt förslag. På fullaste allvar. För jag vet snart inte hur jag ska kunna sköta mitt arbete längre.

Av bloggposten att döma förstår jag att hon ledde ett luciatåg i TV för två år sedan, vilket bland annat resulterade i en rad hatbrev. Lucian hade, enligt bloggen, varit ”mörkhyad”.

Med andra ord går åsikterna starkt isär. Det kanske finns någon som vill ha Lucia som det alltid har varit. Problemet blir då, att säkerställa: när var det så? Andra är mer eller mindre positiva till förändringar. Fast på olika sätt.

Min reflektion blir denna. Vi för luciatraditionen vidare på ett bra sätt. Lucia som normbrytare.

Två exempel från min egen livshistoria. På Fjellstedtska skolan, en internatskola, där jag gick 1976-1979, var traditionen den, att vi alltid skulle ha en kille som lucia. Eftersom skolan så länge varit pojkskola och det alltså inte fanns något val. Traditionen fortsatte även sedan flickor börjat på skolan. Det år jag var med och organiserade tåget gick vi dessutom in baklänges. Och sjöng luciasången bak-och-fram. Husmor blev upprörd. Men inte för att lucian var kille.

När vi bodde i Sydafrika förra gången gick våra ungdomar lucia i Johannesburg på en tillställning som ordnats av, jag tror, 'Sweden – South Africa Business Organisation', eller något liknande. Detta skedde två år i rad.

Första året la vi in två sånger på isiZulu och SeTswana. Inför nästa år bad arrangörerna att vi skulle göra luciatåget mer ’traditionellt’. Suck! Nu kommer jag inte riktigt ihåg hur vi resonerade men vi strök de mer normbrytande sångerna och genomförde ett luciatåg med enbart välkända melodier.

Nu hade jag tänkt publicera en Lucia-bild men hade ingen. Alltså loggade jag in på Svenska kyrkans bildbank. Ikon. Eftersom jag är anställd i Svenska kyrkan kommer jag åt hela arkivet. De luciabilder jag hittade var defintivt inte normbrytande. Mer säger jag inte. Varför publicerar jag inte någon av dessa bilder, då? Nja, jag blev tveksam om jag har rätt att göra det på min blogg. Den är ju min privata. Så av upphovsrättsliga skäl avstår jag. Men en fundering har jag. Är det så att Svenska kyrkan är allt annat än normkritisk när det gäller lucia? Eftersom vi någonstans vill stå för det trygga, invanda. Åtminstone är det så i Svenska kyrkans bildbank.

Eftersom jag inte hittade några luciabilder får det bli ett par pepparkakor istället.

Pepparkakorna får hamna på tvären.
Så bryter de kanske också en norm.

Land and Promise

As reported in another blog post we have received our work permits. One of the first things, therefore, after returning to South Africa will be to send our passports to the agency that has helped us. They will then take the passports to the Department of Home Affairs so that the visa will be issued in the very same passports. This is good to have when we travel out of the country and come back.

Yesterday morning it would have been good to have them issued in the passports. Clever us had booked single tickets from Sweden to South Africa. On Arlanda, the airport outside Stockholm, this was questioned: 

How do you expect to enter South Africa, without work permit on a single ticket?

Oops! We explained to the person who checked in our luggage, that we do have permits but they have not yet been issued in our passports. Somehow the person and her superior bought this story. We got our boarding cards.

Today one of the bible readings in church was taken from Hebrews 11. The author writes about Abraham:

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; (Hebrews 11:8-9 – New International Version)

Of course there are many differences. God's promise to Abram, who became Abraham, was about getting heirs. But we interpreted the text into our situation and felt that it had to do with a promise to be able to enter another country. What we did, after boarding in Stockholm and asking ourselves if we were going to be allowed to enter South Africa, was to practice the art of trust. We said to ourselves:

Let us put this into the hands of God.

When we arrived to O R Tambo in Johannesburg, we went to the passport control and when the person asked us what brought us to South Africa, we answered:

We come from Church of Sweden to visit our partner church.

Before he commented, I said the same thing in seTswana:

Rona re go twsa Sweden, re tla etela Kereke ya Luthere ko Africa Borwa.

Maybe my seTswana is a bit weak, but it was good enough for the officer and he smiled and said:

Welcome back to our country!

Our country! Yes, it can be interpreted as his country and also ours. At least this is how we feel and also felt, when the reader in church this morning read about Abraham and how he trusted God.

Circumcision and death

Male circumcision is rather common in South Africa. According to the Sowetan only in some of the ethnic groups:

Ritual circumcision is common among South Africa's ethnic Xhosa, Sotho and Ndebele ethnic groups. 

But I know that it also occurs amongst the Tswana people. I have seen groups of young men in so called 'circumcision schools', out in the fields. In seTswana (I’m writing under correction) it is called 'sekolo sa bollo'. (It might be misspelled).

Yahoo! News reports that more than 20 boys have died. Other media says 23 or even more. let me paste what Yahoo says: 

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - More than 20 South African boys have died over the past week during coming of age rituals, police said on Thursday, and they blamed botched circumcisions as the likely cause of death.

According to the Soweten it could have been avoided. Let me give a number of quotes:

"We have proven that there was some negligence," Kgoshi Mathibela Mokoena, head of the traditional leaders in the provincial parliament told AFP.

He said preliminary findings showed that some of the 30,000 males currently undergoing the circumcision rites, had developed complications but were not administered proper after-care after they were left in the hands of inexperienced young men.

After conducting the procedures, some of the circumcisers left and returned to the secluded bushy sites, hours later, some of them drunk.

Other people suffered from dehydration as it was established some of the 200 odd sites dotted across the province lacked clean drinking water. 

President Zuma has reacted quite strongly. He is quoted in News24.comhttp://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Circumcision-deaths-outrage-Zuma-20130521, having said:

The whole country is outraged at this massive and unnecessary loss of young life at the hands of those who are supposed to nurture and protect them ... 

One remarkable thing is, that so far, I cannot see that the Mail and Guardian has written anyhting. Strange!

It is of course unacceptable that this can happen. I watched TV the other night and listened to the Provincial Minister of Health, who claimed she could not interfere because she is a woman.

Traditional culture is blamed for gender injustices. With these deaths it is obvious that even male persons are being the victims.

Still I would not like to jump to conclusions. I hope the police will investigate. It is easy to blame culture but isn’t culture always carried by human beings. So the question remains:

Is this a result of cultural practices (structural) or a result of some persons negligence (individual)? Or maybe a combination!

Politics in isiZulu

All education is political.

Education is a political tool for designing society.

The course name is: “Transformation-centred Christian Education”.  With iNyanga* Herbert Moyo from Zimbabwe as lecturer it goes without saying, that the course will be contextual. I am glad to be his colleague. Earlier this week he collected his doctorate at the graduation. From my position I was able to take a nice picture:

iNyanga Moyo is being capped by the Chancellor of UKZN.

If all education is political, Christian education is also political. If education is used by politicians to design society, it can also be used in the church, to design society or at least to influence the society, in which we live.

We discussed about heaven. Traditionally Christian Education in general and sermons in particular have been interested in teaching people about heaven, instead of dealing with the situation in this world. In class we agreed (I think) that there is no contradiction to teach both about heaven on earth and heaven eschatologically. (Eschatology = theology about the end of time). The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and especially the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics (SRPC) wants to be contextual. Theology which has no relevance in ordinary life is not so common here.

This means I learn a lot about this society, when we do theology together. Like the words for “politics” in isiZulu.

“Umbusazwe” is a word for politics which also means “fighting”. Many politicians use it, because politics in the past meant fighting against apartheid. But it also meant that different political parties were fighting with each other. And some of these groups are still fighting.

But there is also another word: “umbangazwe”, which means: “governing”. If one uses this term, politics becomes something else.

My only problem is of course, that I don’t speak isiZulu. But it still gives me some insight in how people in this context understand a phenomenon like politics. When we talk about it I must be aware, that the word “politics” can mean different things. Just like any other word.

* iNyanga is traditionally a kind of doctor, which in English would be described as an herbalist. Therefore Herbert uses the seTswana word Ngaka, when he talks about me.

 

At the Lutheran Theological Institute

This morning we go up before 7, had a nice breakfast and went to the Lutheran Theological Institute. We got the information yesterday, that the morning service would start at 8. So it did. Although the church was almost empty. The church bell rang. In the procession were a priest and a number of theology students. After about 30 minutes the church was almost full. The students did almost everything up to the Eucharist. The priest gave the absolution, read the words of institution and gave us the blessing.

It was a very nice and inclusive service. We think we heard three different languages. Most of it was in English, some in isiZulu and even e few parts in either seTswana or seSotho. It was not a long service. Only 1,5 hours (which is a pretty short service in South Africa). We sang out of an American Lutheran hymnbook, which is quite common in English speaking Lutheran congregations in South Africa.

At the end of the service we were asked to introduce ourselves (which is quite common). After that those who had celebrated their birthdays during the week were asked to rise. We are used to all this. We felt at home!

Most of all we liked the sermon. One of the students preached in that African, powerful way. A loud voice and a strong message. Today about wealth. The preacher said there is nothing wrong in being rich. It’s when we prioritise the wealth before God that the problems start. He spoke about this in general and the situation in South Africa today in particular. He especially addressed those students in the congregation who study to become medical doctors, lawyers or others who might get well-paid jobs in the future. He challenged them and urged them to always think about the poor. This is maybe one of my future students! I like!

After the service we met a young women from Mozambique with a “pearls of life”-bracelet. She had visited Lund in 2007 for the 60th Anniversary of the Lutheran World Federation and that’s when she got the pearls of life. We also spoke to Pontso, a young student we met yesterday. And we had a chat with the priest, one of my future teacher colleagues.

The rest of the day we have been going around in Pietermaritzburg just to get a picture. It is a nice city with a lot of hills. We got a copy of the local newspaper, the Witness, and especially the Property part, issued every Saturday. So in the late afternoon I have spent some time in front of my laptop to prepare for tomorrow. I will visit a number of real estate agencies and right now both Kristina and I feel quite optimistic.

A very good first day in Pietermaritzburg. Our home the next three years.

Modimo o lerato

Rubriken är skriven på seTswana.
Modimo = Gud
o = han/hon
lerato = kärlek
Vi skulle översätta: Gud är kärlek. Men på seTswana använder man inte ofta ordet "är " eller "vara". Min lärare ifrågasatte om ordet "vara" överhuvudtaget var ett verb. Snarare ett substantiv.
När man på seTswana ska tala om en person använder man som pronomen det korta, kärnfulla "o". Det betyder både "hon" och "han". Kanske skulle det idag översättas med ordet "hen".
I kyrkans tidning frågar prästen Helena Myrstener:

Är det dags att börja säga hen om Gud?

Jag tror inte på det. Bland annat efter mina erfarenheter av fyra år i ett språkområde i Sydafrika, där man inte skiljer på orden "han" och "hon". Verkligen inte, skulle jag vilja säga. Det var mycket ofta som vi på engelska hörde meningar i stil med:

My son, she is a doctor.
My daughter, he lives in Cape Town.

Men det betydde inte att könsrollerna inte fanns där. Visserligen säger Sydafrikas konstitution att Sydafrika efter 1996 är "a non-racial and non-sexist society". Men könsrollerna finns där. Presidenten Jacob Zuma har flera fruar. Jag har aldrig hört talas om en fru med flera män.
Gud är självklart helt annorlunda. Men vi kan inte göra oss av med vår historia. Den har vi med oss på gott och ont. Inget hindrar att vi använder olika uttryckssätt för Gud. De finns ju i bibeln och i historien.
Men jag tror inte vi löser problemen genom att införa begreppet "hen". Även om Jesus redan gjort det. Och nu använder jag den engelska översättningen av Luk 13:43 enligt New Interantional Version (NIV):

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!