for solutions to the race problem.

The Ven. Ewen Ratteray said he had been struck during a recent visit to South Africa at how blacks and whites were coming together.

It was noticeable how Nelson Mandela and many other blacks bore little malice towards their former oppressors.

And one particular image stuck in his mind -- a black man and a white playing chess together, totally wrapped up in what they were doing.

Said Archdeacon Ratteray: "We in Bermuda with our many problems, especially with regards to race, can learn from South Africa.

"Our past wears us down too much, our past is a burden we need to let go of.'' He added: "We will only have a future if we are prepared to embrace and accept one another as people, not as blacks and white people, Bermudians, status Bermudians, non-Bermudians and expats, and all that stuff.

"If we can be prepared to embrace and are prepared to accept one another as people who have a common destiny then we will make real progress.'' Archdeacon Ratteray said the appalling poverty in parts of South Africa placed Bermuda's problems in stark relief.

"We don't know how well off we are. We talk about poverty, being oppressed, and being badly off.

"We need to travel a bit so our eyes may be opened and we can see what the real world is like.'' Archdeacon Ratteray was speaking at yesterday's meeting of Hamilton Rotary Club at the Princess Hotel.

He told Rotarians he had been to South Africa for an International Conference on Afro-Anglicanism.

It was held at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, and more than 200 people from about 25 countries attended.

During his visit, Archdeacon Ratteray was able to preach and meet such people as Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"Wherever we went all of us were warmly received by some of the most hospitable people I have ever met.'' Archdeacon Ratteray said he spent a few days in Johannesburg, and the highlight was a visit to the Soweto township.

There he saw properties which would not have looked out of place in Tucker's Town, as well as homes "less than adequate for human habitation.'' One home he visited was no more than the size of his study, but housed 30 people.

There were thousands of tin and wooden shacks in one shantytown section, where peo- ple relied on portaloos and stand pipes, said Archdeacon Ratteray.

Bermudians had no experience of these types of living conditions.

And, yet, there was hope in South Africa.

Archdeacon Ratteray said he had been struck by the lack of bitterness in Cape Town felt by blacks -- including ANC leader Mandela who had been imprisoned and "humiliated'' -- to their former persecutors.

"This lack of malice and spirit of forgiveness was refreshing to behold.'' Archdeacon Ratteray said South Africa was a nation where the terms "black, white, coloured, and Indian'' meant less and less.

Eventually, people would be seen simply as South Africans. That was the wish.

"Labels have to be discarded if there is to be meaningful progress.'' This was a lesson Bermuda had to learn, said Archdeacon Ratteray.