Dr Henkes set out to explore the cultural and political transfers between the Netherlands and South Africa based on her last publication, Maar we wisten ons door de Heer geroepen. Kerk en apartheid in transnationaal perspectief‘.

Dutch migrants coming to 20th century South Africa entered a society that was 

thoroughly divided along colour lines. They often joined a local white church, or they founded, backed by fellow believers in the Netherlands, one themselves. Going into the opposite direction South African students and vicars of all races, from the 1970s onward, came to the Netherland to study theology and exchange ideas and experiences. Dutch missionaries during this time also worked among black South Africans. There was thus a lively exchange of people and ideas between the Netherlands and South Africa that was nourished by official church organisations, social-religious communities or kinship networks. An important factor in this exchange was a Protestant version of Christianity, which was dominant in both countries. 

Dr Henkes also focused on the entanglements between Protestant Netherlands and South Africa during the years that South Africa experienced apartheid. How did political, cultural and religious transfers influence the debate on apartheid in both countries? Historians, theologians and an anthropologist from South Africa and the Netherlands explore these complex entanglements of religion and politics.