BOESAK, ALLAN (AUBREY)

born Feb. 23, 1946, Kakamas, S.Af. South African clergyman who was one of South Africa's leading spokesmen against the country's policy of racial separation, or apartheid. Boesak was born to Christian parents who were classified as Coloured (of mixed European and African ancestry) by the South African government. From an early age he had been interested in preaching, and at age 17 he entered the University of the Western Cape to begin his theological studies. Frustrated by the attitudes of his white teachers at the all-Coloured university, Boesak was eventually persuaded to remain in the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk, the Coloured branch of the Dutch Reformed Church) by Beyers Naud, a white minister who had been cast out for his antiapartheid position. Boesak was ordained in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1968. From 1970 to 1976 he studied in The Netherlands and in the United States. After he returned to South Africa, he became politically active, teaching and preaching while organizing opposition to South African government policies. In 1982 he persuaded members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches to declare apartheid a heresy and to suspend membership of the white South African churches; he was also elected president of the alliance. In 1983 he helped organize the United Democratic Front (UDF), a multiracial association of all manner of groups opposed to apartheid, and in 1984 he and others organized a massive boycott of the national elections. He was arrested a number of times for his participation in demonstrations, and his movements and speech were restricted. Boesak's doctoral dissertation, Farewell to Innocence: A Socio-Ethical Study on Black Theology and Black Power, was published in 1977. His other books included The Finger of God: Sermons on Faith and Socio-Political Responsibility (1982) and Black and Reformed: Apartheid, Liberation, and the Calvinist Tradition (1984).