Orlando Redekopp Collection, 1958-2005

Orlando Redekopp was born in 1946 in Kansas while his father was completing school. His parents were from a Russian Mennonite community in today's Ukraine and emigrated to a Mennonite community in Winnipeg, Canada. Born in Kansas, his family moved back to Winnipeg, where he was raised. Orlando attended the Princess Margaret School for his elementary education and a Mennonite church high school. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Winnipeg, where he majored in economics with a minor in statistics.

During his last year of college, a church event called for volunteers of Christian service to teach in other countries. Orlando signed up and was assigned to Colombia in South America after his graduation, despite not knowing how to speak Spanish, to spend two years teaching English in private, upper-class schools.

After teaching in Colombia, he moved back to Winnipeg where he took a course in English literature and taught part-time. He entered the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana in 1971. The Colombia experience provoked many questions about a religious response to poverty and justice.

At seminary, he met and later married Joan Gerig. Together, they have one daughter, born in 1980.

After completing seminary, he returned to Winnipeg to work in a church-based prison ministry program for two years. In 1977, his wife Joan suggested they travel to Botswana with the church to aid South African refugees who fled after the 1976 Soweto Uprising. They set up and worked at a school for high school students until the end of 1979. Here they also met Prexy Nesbit, a Chicago anti-apartheid activist.

They then moved to Umtata, South Africa, for six months to prepare, with the South African Council of Churches, a set of resources on apartheid's policy of forced removals. This involved visiting many communities under direct threat.

They returned to Canada mid-1980, and spent four months educating church, school, and youth groups in Canada and the USA on apartheid.

Orlando began pastoral work at the First Church of the Brethren, in East Garfield Park, Chicago early 1982, until retiring in 2011. During the 1980s and 1990s, Orlando and Joan joined anti-apartheid organizations: these included Chicago Committee in Solidarity with Southern Africa (CCISSA), Chicago-Alexandra Sister Community Project (CASCP), Coalition for Illinois Divestment from South Africa (CIDSA), the Lutheran Southern Africa Network (SAN), Synapses, Inc., and South Africa's End Conscription Campaign (ECC). Orlando also challenged his denomination to support divestment and South Africa's conscientious objectors. In 1994, Orlando joined many others as international election observers in South Africa's first democratic general election through the Ecumenical Monitoring Programme in (EMPSA).

After retirement from the First Church of the Brethren, Orlando volunteered with Omnia (formerly known as SCUPE), guiding Swiss Reformed pastors on sabbatical around Chicago. He also represents the denomination on the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago.

Since 1948, institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination, or apartheid, dictated policy and culture in South Africa. While official negotiations occurred between 1990 and 1993 to end the apartheid government in South Africa, global pressure for many years prior had contributed to these efforts. In part, anti-apartheid organizations worked locally to lobby and campaign for global governments to divest from South Africa through company boycotts and endorsing economic sanctions.

On April 27, 1994, the first general election with universal adult suffrage was held in South Africa. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), an independent organization established by the Constitution of South Africa, directed and oversaw the election. Over three days, approximately 19.7 million citizens voted with 62 percent of the votes cast for the African National Congress (ANC). Since the vote was short the two-thirds majority required to unilaterally amend the county's interim constitution, the ANC formed a Government of National Unity with the other two major parties, National Party and Inkatha Freedom Party. The new National Assembly then enacted its first measure: elect Nelson Mandela as President, marking him the country's first black chief executive. This election acts as the culmination of negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa. April 27, or Freedom Day, is now publicly celebrated as a holiday in South Africa.

The Orlando Redekopp Collection dates from 1958 to 2005 (mostly 1974 to 1994) in 8.43 cubic feet. The strength of the collection lies with Redekopp's collected books and publications related to the anti-apartheid movement. Redekopp's papers include records of his and a colleague, Kay Burnett's time as international election observers in the 1994 South African General Election. Redekopp's collection also includes records of his work with the End Conscription Campaign and additional local anti-apartheid organizations. Additionally, this collection contains various newspaper clippings of the anti-apartheid movement, the South African elections, and maps of African countries and regions.

The Orlando Redekopp Collection has been arranged into six (6) series. Series 1 and 2 have been arranged further into three (3) sub-series each:

Series 1: Publications, 1958-2005 Sub-series 1: Books, 1958-2005 Sub-series 2: Serials, 1985-2001 Sub-series 3: Reports, circa 1974-2000 Series 2: South African Election Observation records, 1992-1994 Sub-series 1: Newsletters, 1994 Sub-Series 2: Press, 1994 Sub-Series 3: Kay Burnett, 1994 Series 3: Maps, 1974-1991 Series 4: Local Anti-Apartheid Organizations, 1990-1991 Series 5: End Conscription Campaign, 1985-1990 Series 6: Newspaper Clippings, 1975-1994

Series 1 has been arranged by format. Within Series 1, the publications are separated further into sub-series by format, such as books and serials. The books are arranged by surname alphabetically to maintain Redekopp's original arrangement. The additional serials and reports have been arranged chronologically.

Series 2 has been arranged by subject and includes three sub-series that have been arranged by subject. Series 3 has been arranged by format and within the series, the maps are arranged chronologically. Series 4 and 5 have been arranged by subject with their materials arranged chronologically. Series 6 has been arranged by format with its contents arranged chronologically.

Folder/Item Title (Dates). Series Title, Orlando Redekopp Collection, College Archives & Special Colections, Columbia College Chicago.

Title: Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement Collection ID: RG 1000.03 About: The Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement Collection was assembled through the efforts of Dr. Lisa Brock and highlights the grassroots organizations during the 1980s and 1990s that formed to protest international issues of apartheid and how they operated to reach a common goal.

Title: Rozell (Prexy) Nesbitt Collection ID: RG 1000.03.01 About: Rozell "Prexy" Nesbitt is an activist and educator who has been highly active in labor, human rights, and equality movements. Nesbitt's personal papers highlight additional anti-apartheid work internationally and includes approximately 200 publications.

Title: Cheryl Johnson-Odim Collection ID: RG 1000.03.02 About: Cheryl Johnson-Odim is an activist and educator. Johnson-Odim's personal papers highlight her time campaigning against apartheid and includes her reference research on apartheid such as United Nations reports, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles.

Title: African Activist Database | http://africanactivist.msu.edu/aboutus.php The African Activist Archive Project seeks to preserve for history the record of activities of U.S. organizations and individuals that supported African struggles for freedom and had a significant collective impact on U.S. policy during the period 1950-1994. One of the significant U.S. political movements in second half of the twentieth century, it included community activists, students, faculty, churches, unions, city and county councils, state governments, and others. This democratization of foreign policy was unprecedented and it is important that the lessons learned be documented for the benefit of ongoing social justice activism.

Columbia College Chicago students conducted oral history interviews between 2009 and 2010 for the course Oral History: The Art of the Interview in the Humanities, History & Social Sciences department. Orlando Redekopp and his wife, Joan Gerig, participated in these interviews to document their time as local Chicago community activists.

Oral History Interview with Orlando Redekopp | http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_caam_oralhistories/25/

Oral History Interview with Joan Gerig | http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_caam_oralhistories/18/

The entirety of the Orlando Redekopp Collection is available to all users.

Some items contain contact and/or personal information on them; this information may be redacted during appointments by the Archivist.

Materials are the property of Columbia College Chicago. Intellectual property rights of work belong to the original creators. Materials within the collection that are published and copyrighted maintain their copyright protections and must be used according to United States Copyright Law. Use of this collection and its materials is understood to be primarily for research, teaching, and creative study; additional uses, such as publication, exhibition, or other appropriate purposes may be considered upon consultation with the Archivist.

All physical materials and reformatted media must be viewed during a scheduled appointment time within the College Archives & Special Collections office. No materials are to be circulated unless otherwise consulted with the Archivist.

Access to some audiovisual media in the collection, such as phonographic record, may be temporarily unavailable pending digital reformatting.

Orlando Redekopp gifted this collection to the College Archives & Special Collections in April 2011.

• Subject
  • Apartheid -- South Africa
  • Anti-apartheid movements
  • Anti-apartheid activists
  • Apartheid -- South Africa -- History
  • Anti-apartheid movements -- South Africa
  • Service, Compulsory non-military -- South Africa
  • Elections -- South Africa
  • Election monitoring
• Geographic CoverageKwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)
• Names
  • Redekopp, Orlando
  • Burnett, Kay
  • Church of the Brethren
  • End Conscription Campaign (South Africa)
  • African National Congress
  • Chicago Committee in Solidarity with South Africa
  • Chicago-Alexandra Sister Community Project
  • Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013
  • South Africa. Independent Electoral Commission