Imam who shook SA

Two events of seismic proportions shook the Western Cape in the closing days of September 1969. The first was the Ceres-Tulbagh earthquake of September 29 which registered 6.3 on the Richter scale. The aftershocks continued until April 14 1970, and the effects of the quake were felt more than 1000km away in Durban.

The second seismic shock was the murder on the night of September 27 in the Maitland police cells of the 44-year-old imam of the Stegman Street Mosque, Abdulla Haron, the editor of Moslem News, the husband of Galiema, and the father of three young children - Shamila, Mogamet and Fatima.

That death - the 12th political prisoner to die in police custody between 1963 and 1969 - sent forth tremors of grief and protest that registered shock waves well beyond the borders of South Africa.

That we are gathered here this evening for the fifth Annual Imam Haron Memorial Lecture bears witness to the fact that we have not forgotten that political earthquake that marked the death of such a courageous leader. I congratulate the organisers for ensuring that every generation of young South Africans learn the lessons of faith and courage given to us through the life of Imam Haron, for we need to be reminded of the price that was paid for our freedom, and why we dare not tolerate what passes for education and decency in our country.

I was 13 when the lesser quake hit the Western Cape; my parents would tease me for years afterwards that I slept through my birthday night (September 29), blissfully unaware of the commotion on the streets of Retreat where we lived.

What I did not sleep through, in the manner of speaking, was the other earthquake for throughout my teenage years I was reminded - at school and university and in the community - of the imam who "accidentally fell down the stairs" and died, even though the alleged fall could not, according to the inquest, account for all 27 blue-green bruises on the body.

Since that time, we mocked the official versions of activists who died in detention as a result of slipping on a bar of soap, or jumping from a window, or hanging themselves or falling down stairs.

There are several qualities of Imam Haron that struck me as worth sharing.

• His strong sense of humane values rooted in his faith. He expressed a strong commitment to the values of freedom, dignity, respect and fairness, and this came through clearly and repeatedly in his rousing public addresses;

• His deep commitment to education. Even though he did not have the opportunity to proceed beyond primary schooling, he was passionate about education for his children and others;

• His passion for a better society. He had within his vision a society that was not based on racism and discrimination but equality for all human beings, including freedom of worship - something he stood on strongly when it came to the immovable position of mosques under the Group Areas act;

• His courage in the face of injustice. There was a growing awareness that the dragnet of the apartheid system was closing in on him, and that he should have made plans to escape the country a long time ago. But he stood his groun;

• His internationalist orientation to the understanding of society. He travelled widely at a time when few did, and gradually developed a fine-tuned understanding of global struggles for justice and the solidarity of those in north Africa and Europe, and.

• His non-partisan perspective with respect to others. While he was a devout Muslim, he also served people in Langa, Gugulethu and Nyanga. He consolidated Muslim-Christian relations from his base in Athlone.

What made Imam Haron such a threat to the apartheid state was his refusal to separate school and society; education and community; faith and activism; individual agency and political authority. To him, it was the same thing.

If we all make this commitment, then Imam Abdulla Haron would not have died in vain. In fact, he would still be with us through his powerful, enduring legacy. In that sense Mary Elizabeth Fry might well have been speaking of Imam Haron in the closing words of her wonderful poem:

"Do not stand at my grave and cry

I am not dead, I did not die"

• Speech delivered on the occasion of the Fifth Annual Imam Abdullah Haron Memorial Lecture, October 2 2012, Salt River. The full speech is available on request from jj@ufs.ac.za