Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Right Rev Richard Wood--Campaigner against black oppression, Dies

From the Guardian-

The Right Rev Richard Wood, who has died aged 88, was one of several English-born Anglican clergymen to be expelled from Namibia (formerly South West Africa) for standing up to the brutal treatment of the colony's black people. In a celebrated case in 1974, he initiated an action in the South African courts that halted the flogging of South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo) freedom fighters by the black puppet regime in Ovamboland. For his sins, South Africa's then prime minister, John Vorster, kicked him out.

Wood was born in Oldham, Lancashire, the son of a cotton-mill engineer. He trained as an electrical engineer, and at the outbreak of the second world war joined the RAF, working on Fairey Battle light bombers at an airfield in Épernay, France. After the war, while working in India, he was inspired by a Tamil priest to become a devout Christian. He was ordained in 1953 and emigrated to South Africa two years later.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/21/religion-southafrica

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