Alex Boraine: visionary bridge-builder and prince of peace

Abstract

Alexander (Alex) Lionel Boraine will be remembered as 'a tireless comrade in the struggle for human rights around the world', and has been called a 'Prince of Peace' for his lifelong commitment to transforming South Africa's society through truth, reconciliation and justice following the horrors of apartheid'. Boraine was born on 10 January 1931 in Cape Town and grew up in a working-class white suburb. He left high school in Standard 8, two years before matriculating, to work in a range of casual jobs. After a relatively non-religious upbringing, and after his father's death when Boraine was 18, he attended a Methodist Church youth camp where he experienced a conversion. His subsequent rise through the Methodist Church was remarkable: he became a lay (that is, not ordained) preacher within a year, and a Sunday school superintendent and candidate minister by the age of 20.