Bismarck Tribune

Richard Hinds, a freshman at the University of Mary, saw a movie Wednesday night about a former racist -- Gerrit Wolfaardt -- who in the late 1960s directed his hatred toward blacks in South Africa.

As part of the University of Mary's second annual Leadership Day, Hinds and another 400 students listened to Wolfaardt talk about his change of heart on Thursday.

The movie, titled "Final Solution," has been picked by the Public Broadcasting Company to debut nationally in February during Black History Month. The drama is about a young man, Wolfaardt, who has been taught by his father and others to hate his fellow countrymen, including blacks in South Africa. But a series of events, including reading "Cry the Beloved Country," a book he didn't want to read, bring Wolfaardt to a change of heart and leads him into black churches to reconcile the races.

One violent scene in the film depicts him brutally beating a black man named Moses Moremi. Wolfaardt asked the students if they remembered him looking at this hands, dripping with Moses' blood.

"I couldn't believe it because his blood looked just like mine," he said. This was one of the moments of revelation that turned him away from racism and hatred to a life as a Christian looking for truth, reconciliation and forgiveness.

"It was a great movie -- excellent quality," Hinds said. "It takes a lot of guts to make a drastic change like he did."

Wolfaardt challenged the students to help stop the growing hatred in the world and also to heal wounds between races within the United States and North Dakota.

"God is looking for this generation to change the world," he said.

He urged the students to follow "the radical example of servant leadership" demonstrated by Jesus Christ when he washed the feet of his disciples. Christians, he said, have been entrusted with the power of reconciliation because "we know what it means to ask for forgiveness and we know what it means to be forgiven."

Wolfaardt, 55, who now lives in Colorado, said his story depicted in the movie began in 1968 and concluded in 1993, right before the end of racial segregation, economic discrimination and white minority rule in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela became the black government's leader in 1994. The new government set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which allowed people to come forward, tell what atrocities they had committed and receive forgiveness. Because of the commission, Wolfaardt said, South Africa is "further along the road of reconciliation than the United States."

Wolfaardt and Gary Wheeler, the producer of the movie, were brought to campus by Kevin Cramer, director of U-Mary's Harold Schafer Leadership Foundation.

Cramer described Wolfaardt as someone who embodies the servant leadership model established by Christ. He met Wolfaardt through Wheeler, who was in North Dakota last year scouting locations for another movie.

"This isn't Gerrit's story," Cramer said. "This is God's story that uses Gerrit as a vessel."

Wheeler said the movie was chosen by PBS because of its message of hope. "There's always hope," he said. "If God can change this guy, he can change anyone."

(Reach reporter Steve Van Dyke at 250-8225 or stevev@ndonline.com.)