Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Van der Merwe, HW, 1929-2001
Parallel form(s) of name
- Van der Merwe, Hendrik Willem, 1929-2001
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
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Description area
Dates of existence
1929-2001
History
Professor HW van der Merwe was Director of the Centre for Intergroup Studies at UCT, mediator and prominent Quaker.
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Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Hendrik Willem van der Merwe was born in Bonnievale, South Africa, on 24 June 1929 and died on 5 March 2001 at his home on the family farm at Stormsvlei.
HW, as he preferred to be called by his friends and associates, became a farmer in the Western Cape during 1947 and 1948, then becoming a missionary in the Dutch Reformed Church in Southern Rhodesia as “Industrial Instructor and Superintendent of African Schools” for two years, before returning briefly to farming in Bonnievale in 1951.
In 1954 HW obtained a B.A. at the University of Stellenbosch, majoring in Sociology, Psychology and Philosophy, and then in 1956 he gained a B.A.(Hons) in Sociology cum laude, and in 1957 and M.A. in Sociology, cum laude. From 1958 to 1963 hW held various teaching and research posts with the University of California, obtaining his PhD in Sociology there in 1963.
On returning to South Africa, there followed from 1963 to 1968 positions as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, including one year as acting head of the Department.
In 1968, HW became Director of the Abe Bailey Institute of Inter-racial Studies, which became the Centre for Intergroup Studies, situated within the University of Cape Town. He occupied this position for twenty-five years, after which he became Senior Consultant of the Centre (re-named again and now called the Centre for Conflict Resolution), just prior to his retirement in 1994. He was awarded the title of Honorary Professor of UCT when he first took up the appointment.
During his time as Director of the Centre, HW visited extensively in the UK, USA and Europe, as well as within South Africa, sometimes as guest of the countries abroad, sometimes lecturing at organised meetings, as well as at universities and centres of learning, generally n the subject of South Africa.
HW’s CV shows in detail the extent of his involvement over these years as well as listing his many publications. His final book entitled Peacemaking in South Africa; a life in conflict resolution was published in 2000.
The major focus of his work was the promotion of communication among conflicting groups in South Africa. HW was successful in bringing together leaders of the most important parliamentary and extra-parliamentary groups within South Africa.
He was a founding member and President of the South African Association for Conflict Intervention, sometime President of the Association for Sociology in Southern Africa, a member of the South African Institute for Race Relations and Trustee of the Cape of Good Hope Centre for Jungian Studies.
HW pioneered the concept and practice of facilitation in political relations in South Africa, organised the first two national conferences on negotiation and mediation in community and political conflict in South Africa, where at the second, the South Africa Association for Conflict Intervention was launched.
He negotiated between factions in Cape Town’s Crossroad squatter camps, Inkatha and the United Democratic Front in Natal, and in 1984 arranged the first meeting between the Afrikaans Press and ANC leaders exiled in Lusaka, Zambia, the first of many subsequent contacts between white South Africans and the exiled ANC.
HW maintained links with the Mandela family while Nelson Mandela was in prison, arranging support for the children’s education and providing accommodation for Winnie Mandela when she visited her husband in Pollsmoor Prison.
Throughout his time as Director of the Centre, HW was a very active Quaker. He was Clerk of South Africa General Meeting for six years, also sometime Clerk of Cape Western Monthly Meeting. He was deeply involved in a number of Quaker projects, including Chair of Quaker Service and the Peacework project, which started in 1982. In 1989 he led a Quaker Peace Mission to Mozambique and at the request of Archbishop Desmond Tutu consulted with the largest churches in Lesotho during the constitution crisis in 1991.
In spite of his declining health, HW continued to be creatively active during his retirement. In his private capacity he took an interest in the democratic process for change. A major focus for his research was the healing, reconciliation and the restitution of past wrongs in South Africa. He was nominated for Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee by the Task Group of the Western Province Council of Churches, but was not appointed. He became much involved with the Correctional Board of Pollsmoor Prison in the Western Cape from 1996 until19998 when the Board was laid down.
Perhaps a fitting tribute to HW’s long and devoted work in the field of justice and reconciliation came when he was invited to give the James Backhouse Memorial Lecture at the Annual Meeting of Australian Quakers at La Trobe University in Melbourne. Although within two months of his death and very weak, he spoke to his lecture title “Reconciling opposites: reflections on peacemaking in South Africa”. A copy of the video of this lecture is in the Collection, as well as the booklet which expands on the subject.
In January 1994 (following the death of Marietjie in 1992), HW married Elsbeth Siglinde Woody, then Professor of Art and Chair of the Art Department at Baruch College of the City of New York, a well-known sculptor and author. She owned and ran the Clay Art Center near New York. In 1995 she was given an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art.
They made their home both in Stormsvlei and in Southern Bavaria in a typical old Bavarian farmhouse, from where a number of HW’s files were sent to join this collection after his death.
ELIZABETH MARIA (MARIETJIE) VAN DER MERWE, NEE BOTHA
Marietjie van der Merwe as she was known, was born in Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia, on 29 September 1935 and she died on 4 March 1992, after seven years of trauma, living with the results of a brain tumour which was partly removed, but the damaged cells caused her great difficulty. She was much loved and wonderfully cared for by HW and Lynette Ngxiki during the final years of her life.
She matriculated in Fauresmith, OFS, and in 1956 obtained a Teacher’s Diploma in Music plus an Organist’s Diploma from the University of Stellenbosch, where she met her future husband. Her studies in Art started in 1957 in the USA, and by 1963 she had gained a B.A. in Art, then an M.A. in Design, specialising in Ceramics, from the University of California. She gave piano lessons in both South Africa and Canada. Marietjie taught ceramics at Rhodes University and at the University of Natal where she was External Examiner in Ceramics. She also taught at the Frank Joubert Art School in Cape Town and was with the African Art and Craft Centre at Rorke’s Drift in Natal between 1971 and 1975.
Marietjie was a celebrated South African potter, known nationally and internationally. There were exhibitions of her work in South Africa, the UK and Italy. Some pieces are part of art museum collections in South Africa. She designed and supervised several kilns, plus producing publications and articles on her work. Most of her later pieces were done in very fine vitreous porcelain on the wheel.
Marietjie and HW were married in 1957 and while HW was doing his research for his dissertation in a small town in Canada, Marieke, their daughter, was born in 1960, followed by Hendrik in 1963 and Hugo in 1965. Marietjie was an active member of the Religious Society of Friends, first becoming associated with the Society in 1958 when she and HW were Wardens of the International Student Centre within the University of California. Together they were Friends in Residence for the Autumn/Spring term 1986/7 at Woodbrooke College (a Quaker College in Birmingham, England), where Marietjie taught the techniques of raku pottery. She shared HW’s love of hiking (HW was a member of the Mountain Club of South Africa) and it gave her great joy that she was still able to join with HW on the John Muir Trail in the California Mountains in 1987. Her other great interest, apart from Music, was in Jungian psychology, which she shared with HW who was an Honorary member and trustee of the Cape of Good Hope Centre for Jungian Studies.
HW, as he preferred to be called by his friends and associates, became a farmer in the Western Cape during 1947 and 1948, then becoming a missionary in the Dutch Reformed Church in Southern Rhodesia as “Industrial Instructor and Superintendent of African Schools” for two years, before returning briefly to farming in Bonnievale in 1951.
In 1954 HW obtained a B.A. at the University of Stellenbosch, majoring in Sociology, Psychology and Philosophy, and then in 1956 he gained a B.A.(Hons) in Sociology cum laude, and in 1957 and M.A. in Sociology, cum laude. From 1958 to 1963 hW held various teaching and research posts with the University of California, obtaining his PhD in Sociology there in 1963.
On returning to South Africa, there followed from 1963 to 1968 positions as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, including one year as acting head of the Department.
In 1968, HW became Director of the Abe Bailey Institute of Inter-racial Studies, which became the Centre for Intergroup Studies, situated within the University of Cape Town. He occupied this position for twenty-five years, after which he became Senior Consultant of the Centre (re-named again and now called the Centre for Conflict Resolution), just prior to his retirement in 1994. He was awarded the title of Honorary Professor of UCT when he first took up the appointment.
During his time as Director of the Centre, HW visited extensively in the UK, USA and Europe, as well as within South Africa, sometimes as guest of the countries abroad, sometimes lecturing at organised meetings, as well as at universities and centres of learning, generally n the subject of South Africa.
HW’s CV shows in detail the extent of his involvement over these years as well as listing his many publications. His final book entitled Peacemaking in South Africa; a life in conflict resolution was published in 2000.
The major focus of his work was the promotion of communication among conflicting groups in South Africa. HW was successful in bringing together leaders of the most important parliamentary and extra-parliamentary groups within South Africa.
He was a founding member and President of the South African Association for Conflict Intervention, sometime President of the Association for Sociology in Southern Africa, a member of the South African Institute for Race Relations and Trustee of the Cape of Good Hope Centre for Jungian Studies.
HW pioneered the concept and practice of facilitation in political relations in South Africa, organised the first two national conferences on negotiation and mediation in community and political conflict in South Africa, where at the second, the South Africa Association for Conflict Intervention was launched.
He negotiated between factions in Cape Town’s Crossroad squatter camps, Inkatha and the United Democratic Front in Natal, and in 1984 arranged the first meeting between the Afrikaans Press and ANC leaders exiled in Lusaka, Zambia, the first of many subsequent contacts between white South Africans and the exiled ANC.
HW maintained links with the Mandela family while Nelson Mandela was in prison, arranging support for the children’s education and providing accommodation for Winnie Mandela when she visited her husband in Pollsmoor Prison.
Throughout his time as Director of the Centre, HW was a very active Quaker. He was Clerk of South Africa General Meeting for six years, also sometime Clerk of Cape Western Monthly Meeting. He was deeply involved in a number of Quaker projects, including Chair of Quaker Service and the Peacework project, which started in 1982. In 1989 he led a Quaker Peace Mission to Mozambique and at the request of Archbishop Desmond Tutu consulted with the largest churches in Lesotho during the constitution crisis in 1991.
In spite of his declining health, HW continued to be creatively active during his retirement. In his private capacity he took an interest in the democratic process for change. A major focus for his research was the healing, reconciliation and the restitution of past wrongs in South Africa. He was nominated for Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee by the Task Group of the Western Province Council of Churches, but was not appointed. He became much involved with the Correctional Board of Pollsmoor Prison in the Western Cape from 1996 until19998 when the Board was laid down.
Perhaps a fitting tribute to HW’s long and devoted work in the field of justice and reconciliation came when he was invited to give the James Backhouse Memorial Lecture at the Annual Meeting of Australian Quakers at La Trobe University in Melbourne. Although within two months of his death and very weak, he spoke to his lecture title “Reconciling opposites: reflections on peacemaking in South Africa”. A copy of the video of this lecture is in the Collection, as well as the booklet which expands on the subject.
In January 1994 (following the death of Marietjie in 1992), HW married Elsbeth Siglinde Woody, then Professor of Art and Chair of the Art Department at Baruch College of the City of New York, a well-known sculptor and author. She owned and ran the Clay Art Center near New York. In 1995 she was given an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art.
They made their home both in Stormsvlei and in Southern Bavaria in a typical old Bavarian farmhouse, from where a number of HW’s files were sent to join this collection after his death.
ELIZABETH MARIA (MARIETJIE) VAN DER MERWE, NEE BOTHA
Marietjie van der Merwe as she was known, was born in Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia, on 29 September 1935 and she died on 4 March 1992, after seven years of trauma, living with the results of a brain tumour which was partly removed, but the damaged cells caused her great difficulty. She was much loved and wonderfully cared for by HW and Lynette Ngxiki during the final years of her life.
She matriculated in Fauresmith, OFS, and in 1956 obtained a Teacher’s Diploma in Music plus an Organist’s Diploma from the University of Stellenbosch, where she met her future husband. Her studies in Art started in 1957 in the USA, and by 1963 she had gained a B.A. in Art, then an M.A. in Design, specialising in Ceramics, from the University of California. She gave piano lessons in both South Africa and Canada. Marietjie taught ceramics at Rhodes University and at the University of Natal where she was External Examiner in Ceramics. She also taught at the Frank Joubert Art School in Cape Town and was with the African Art and Craft Centre at Rorke’s Drift in Natal between 1971 and 1975.
Marietjie was a celebrated South African potter, known nationally and internationally. There were exhibitions of her work in South Africa, the UK and Italy. Some pieces are part of art museum collections in South Africa. She designed and supervised several kilns, plus producing publications and articles on her work. Most of her later pieces were done in very fine vitreous porcelain on the wheel.
Marietjie and HW were married in 1957 and while HW was doing his research for his dissertation in a small town in Canada, Marieke, their daughter, was born in 1960, followed by Hendrik in 1963 and Hugo in 1965. Marietjie was an active member of the Religious Society of Friends, first becoming associated with the Society in 1958 when she and HW were Wardens of the International Student Centre within the University of California. Together they were Friends in Residence for the Autumn/Spring term 1986/7 at Woodbrooke College (a Quaker College in Birmingham, England), where Marietjie taught the techniques of raku pottery. She shared HW’s love of hiking (HW was a member of the Mountain Club of South Africa) and it gave her great joy that she was still able to join with HW on the John Muir Trail in the California Mountains in 1987. Her other great interest, apart from Music, was in Jungian psychology, which she shared with HW who was an Honorary member and trustee of the Cape of Good Hope Centre for Jungian Studies.