Author: Fakir Hassen
Publication: The Times of India
Date: March 21, 2002
He used to be a devout Christian
until curiosity took him to a Hindu temple in Lenasia town, 40 km south
of this South African city.
Four years later Meshack Jantjies,
35, is South Africa's first black African Hindu priest.
Not only does the deputy resident
priest at the Sivan Gnana Sabay temple have a large following but with
tremendous effort he is also mastering the Tamil language.
It all started when, after losing
his job at a bakery in the small rural town of Makwassi, Jantjies began
doing odd jobs such as garden cleaning in Lenasia.
"I passed the temple several times,
always wondering what went on inside and eventually decided to enquire
about it," Jantjies told IANS.
"After getting explanations from
the resident priest I decided to join the congregation. My wife initially
resisted the idea because she said the prayers were conducted in a strange
language, but I decided that I would try."
Initially Jantjies joined activities
at the temple while working as a cleaner there. When his family joined
him to live on the premises, he found more time available to engage in
deeper studies.
"The resident priest then made me
a tape which I listened to over and over and I learnt to recite prayers
from the Thevaram (Tamil scriptures) by doing that. I also joined the adult
Tamil classes that were being offered by the temple until they were stopped
because a new school was being built on the premises."
Two years ago Jantjies. was appointed
the deputy resident priest after intensive coaching by priest Marie Pillay
and deciding to become a Saivite. He has been fully accepted by the devotees,
many of who have moved out of Lenasia but still return there on Sundays
for services. "When I stand before the people here and lead the prayers,
I feel that I am with my own family."
His immediate family, wife Johanna,
32, and children Ishmael, 12, Eunice, 10, and Monica, 7, are all now also
learning to read and write Tamil at the local school and are especially
interested in learning Bharatanatyam dance.
"My family and friends back in the
village in Makwassi refuse to believe that I have been accepted by and
lead the followers here in service, until they actually come here and see
for themselves.
"I was like a wild animal before
joining the temple and now I have found peace with myself I find people
walking past people here who see me wearing this traditional Indian dress
asking me: 'What kind of church is this?' I tell them that it is a church
just like yours because we all believe in one god. They argue that these
are people who worship cows and horses, like the statues displayed in the
front of the temple.
"But I say to them: 'No, look, why
don't you come here one Sunday to see for yourself and then decide? I also
'used to think the same when I first passed the temple, until I discovered
that they do not worship animals but one god, just as I did in the Christian
church that I attended previously."
Jantjies goes to great pains to
emphasise that he was not recruited or converted by anyone. He now plans
to make it his mission to break myths among other communities about temple
worship and the languages used in them. "I can't say that I know Tamil
well yet, but I am convinced that it is not a difficult language to learn.
I want to be able to read and write the prayers that I recite."
"Just as other Indian South Africans
who do not know an African language assume that is difficult to learn and
that the people speaking it are just babbling away, so too many of my people
think that Indian languages are hard to follow and the prayers in the temples
consist of a lot of mumbo jumbo. Only when I begin to explain to them what
it involves do they begin to see it differently. (IANS)