THE MAN WHO SHOOK THE MOUNTAINS - In the footsteps of my ancestors

<p>'This is a South African story of an unsung hero a man forgotten by history - though not by me nor by the people who knew and respected him ...'</p><p> </p><p>When his grandfather gave sermons he was 'capable of shaking mountains' a church leader tells journalist and author Lesley Mofokeng. 'Ntate Mofokeng pulled people towards God with the great and rare talent of a motivator.'</p><p> </p><p>In this revealing book Mofokeng investigates the life of his grandfather Mongangane Wilfred Mofokeng a prominent Dutch Reformed Church evangelist. In the 1950s as Black South Africans were being evicted from the cities to live in reserves and homelands Mongangane set out to build a community at a dusty cattle post in the far North West province. There he managed to establish a resilient community that mostly lived outside the repressions of the apartheid regime. The journey takes the author from Johannesburg's Marabi-soaked townships of the 1930s to his childhood home of Gelukspan near Lichtenburg and then to rural Free State and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. In what becomes a spiritual quest he traces the inspirational footsteps of his ancestors and the legendary King Moshoeshoe.</p><p> </p><p>Mofokeng also explores the politics and history of the Dutch Reformed Church's Black constituency and uncovers why to this day it is called Kereke ya Fora - or 'Church of the French' - and its hymns are sung across denominations and in social spaces outside the church.</p><p><br></p>