My mind goes back to December 17, Lilongwe, Malawi. I ran into Anesa, the wife of Prof. de Gruchy's former student Kelvin Kalonga. She asked me what I'm up to nowadays and I told her I'm a student at the University of KwaZulu Natal, studying Theology and Development. Her face lit up, 'Ah, you are with Steve de Gruchy!' I had to ask her if she'd met him in person; to which she responded that no, she had never met him but he'd made such an impression on her husband that it felt like she knew him herself. Anesa and Kelvin have a daughter, Shalom. I asked if that name came from Prof. Steve's lectures on themes of liberation. 'Yes!' she said. Obviously. Everyone who knew Steve de Gruchy had a story, a good story about him. I myself was selfish. While others learned from this gifted professor and sat under his pastoral counsel, I employed my strategy of 'avoiding to be a groupie'. Only now do I realise that no one was a groupie, a wise person
Resisting the stereotypes.