[I doubt this is very “real”. I am highly suspicious of this “European African Reconciliation Process” organisation. It sounds very similar to what Vlok just did in S.Africa where he washed the Reverend Frank Chikane’s feet. I loved a comment from a Zimbabwean woman, where she coined a new word. She said is “Vlokking” becoming a trend?

I think our black leaders would love it. But I think it is all insanity, and these religious leaders are crazy. If they want whites to ask forgiveness, then they should go and get hold of the Arabs who practised even more slavery. This, to me, is just a propaganda exercise. And that if happened in Zimbabwe… makes me EXTREMELY SUSPICIOUS. I’d look for the hand of Robert Mugabe and/or Thabo Mbeki in this. Its a load of rubbish. Jan]

Church leaders spark debate in Zim

Harare – A group of church leaders from Europe has stirred debate in crisis-ridden Zimbabwe by coming to ask forgiveness for past wrongs committed by Western countries. The leaders knelt before officials, including former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, on Friday. They asked for forgiveness for ills committed during the slave-trade era as well as during colonial times, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported. The delegates, from an organisation calling itself the European African Reconciliation Process, said Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial power, had dehumanised Africans. Briton Chris Seaton said: “We repent for robbing Africans of their history and identity. Today we ask forgiveness in Jesus’ name before you and God.” The gesture has aroused mixed reactions in a country struggling amid sky-high inflation and spiralling prices. President Robert Mugabe’s government blames Britain and the West for his country’s economic crisis, saying Zimbabwe’s enemies have imposed illegal sanctions on the poor. A columnist in the official Sunday Mail ridiculed the church leaders confessions, saying Western countries had continued with their destabilisation tactics. But Chissano said he was humbled by the church leaders’ gesture

From The Star, 5 September