(The Nationalist, 28 May 2001)
During the Nineteen Seventies, there was a long and bitter war in what was then Rhodesia, between a government made up mainly of white settlers against African nationalist guerrilla movements who wanted majority rule. The leader of the government was Ian Smith and his Minister of Law and Order was a Mr. Lardner-Burke. (I wonder where the Burke came from.)
From time to time there would be executions of guerrillas taken prisoner by government forces. On one occasion, Lardner-Burke was asked in Parliament to give the names of those executed. He refused to do so, saying that their names were of no consequence since the men in question were dead anyway. This was indicative of his cold-blooded and hard-hearted attitude towards Africans.
All that changed in 1980, with a combination of military pressure from the guerrillas, hostile world opinion, and declining morale among the white population because of the protracted nature of the war. Elections led to majority rule, and Ian Smith and his government were voted out of office.
Black people came to take their rightful place in society. For example, they were admitted to restaurants which had previously been all-white. On one such occasion, Mr. Lardner-Burke, now a quiet and chastened man, was sitting in a restaurant having a meal with friends. Not far away at another table was a black man, now a government minister. The black man (whose name, to my regret, I have forgotten) had been a guerrilla and had suffered at the hands of government forces. He got up from his table, went over to Lardner-Burke’s, introduced himself and spoke for a moment of his experience.
I can only surmise that Lardner-Burke must have felt at least embarrassed, if not afraid for his life. The roles of the powerful and the powerless had been reversed. But the atmosphere changed when the black man said to Lardner-Burke that he had forgiven him and wanted to look to the future without anger about the past. Lardner-Burke was greatly relieved and spoke an awkward word of thanks.
Forgiveness is cathartic and releases tension, revenge perpetuates and increases tension. Forgiveness enables a person to let go of anger and resentment; it means that the victim is no longer controlled by the aggressor, it means the victim takes charge of his/her life and can look to the future with confidence. A willingness to forgive is a sign that the Spirit of God is present.