Boesak, Allan

Allan Boesak, in full Allan Aubrey Boesak, (born February 23, 1946, Kakamas, South Africa), South African clergyman who was one of South Africa’s leading spokespersons 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 Naudé, 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. He also joined the African National Congress (ANC).

In 1982 Boesak 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 served as president of the alliance from 1982 to 1991. 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. Boesak was arrested a number of times for his participation in demonstrations, and his movements and speech were restricted.

After the fall of apartheid in the early 1990s, Boesak remained active in the ANC, which came to dominate South African politics. In 1994, however, he was accused of misappropriating money donated to his charity, Foundation for Peace and Justice. The allegations forced him to withdraw his nomination as ambassador to the United Nations. In 1999 he was convicted of theft and fraud, and he served one year of a three-year sentence before being released in 2001. He was pardoned by President Thabo Mbeki in 2005.

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), Black and Reformed: Apartheid, Liberation, and the Calvinist Tradition (1984), The Tenderness of Conscience: African Renaissance and the Spirituality of Politics (2005), and Dare We Speak of Hope?: Searching for a Language of Life in Faith and Politics (2014).