The First Dominican Friars in Boksburg, Brakpan and Springs, South Africa (1917-1927)

Book excerpt: This book was originally published in 2017 to commemorate the centenary of the Dominican friars presence in South Africa. They arrived in the mining towns of Boksburg, Brakpan and Springs. Coming from a different milieu in England, they found it difficult to fit in. They chose not to get involved with the racial and social animosities, the labour unrest and even the socio-economic factors that led eventually to an apartheid government. Instead they focused on the task of building up parishes. The social situation they encountered led to frustration. Personal relationships between them deteriorated and most of the first group returned overseas unhappy or ill. It was only after 1925 with the arrival of more friars, that the work of building not just churches, but of living communities of priest and people, could begin. It was due to the persistence of two men, Bede Jarrett and Lawrence Shapcote, that the mission survived at all. This is a reprint of the 2017 book and is the first in a newly established Southern African Dominican Series published in the ATF Africa imprint of ATF Press Publishing Group. The book includes a Foreword by the Vice-Provincial of the Dominican Friars of Southern Africa in 2017, Stanslaus Muyebe OP