Allan Aubrey Boesak was born on February 23, 1945, in Kakamas, N.W. Cape, South
Africa. From an early age he developed his twin interests of religion and politics.
Having always wanted to be a minister, Boesak at age 14 became a sexton in the
Dutch Reformed Church's Sendingkerk (a "colored," or mixedrace, offshoot of the
white Dutch Reformed Church). After graduating from Bellville Theological Seminary
in 1967, Boesak was ordained at age 23. He married Dorothy Rose Martin in 1969
and they had four children (he eventually divorced and later married Elna Botha in
1991). By his late teens Boesak had expressed increasing dissatisfaction with South
Africa's apartheid, a strict form of segregation, especially after the government cited
racial reasons to force his family to relocate.

From 1970 to 1976 Boesak studied at the Kampen Theological Institute in Holland,
where he completed his doctorate on ethics. Returning to South Africa shortly after
the 1976 Soweto uprisings, Boesak increased his political activities through the
church. Boesak's appeal quickly spread beyond the 2.8 million "coloreds" to both
black and white opponents of apartheid. In 1981 various black Reformed churches
founded ABRECSA (the Alliance of Black Reformed Christians in Southern Africa)
and elected Boesak as chairman. The alliance's statement reflected many of
Boesak's beliefs. It rejected the use of religion as a cultural or racist ideology (as
employed by the white Dutch Reformed Church according to the alliance). The
alliance's statement furthermore rejected divorcing religion from political activism.
Boesak and the alliance believed that the struggle against apartheid represented a
struggle for Christianity's integrity.

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