Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Organization: The Elders, The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation
Cause: Anti-apartheid, Global Peace and Conflict Resolution
Personal Background/History: Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born in Klerksdorp, South Africa in 1931. He grew up amidst the prejudice and segregation of apartheid, and saw the great disparities between his fellow blacks and the white ruling class. However, he also experienced a few surprising encounters with white people that shaped his understanding of how people should treat one another.
My mother at this time was working as a cook in a school for blind, black blind people. And she was cooking for the women in this institution, and I must have been maybe 8 years or so, I was standing with my mother on the veranda when a white man went past wearing a long black cassock and as he strut past, he did something that I found striking. He doffed his hat to my mother. And I, I was just surprised that a white man should do that to a woman, black woman, who was a simple domestic worker. And, I subsequently found out that he was Trevor Huddleston. I was then living in a hostel run by his community and I contracted TB and went to hospital for 20 months and during that time, he visited me regularly in hospital. Yeah, I mean, you can imagine what it did for a ghetto urchin, that an important white man, who used to come and see me regularly. So those are just some of the influences that I had that helped to shape me, so that when I grew up, I probably thought that I wanted to emulate people of that kind.
When he grew up, Tutu became a teacher, and he and his wife Leah enjoyed the profession until the South African government introduced the deliberately inferior Bantu education system for black children. Bantu education was designed to aid in the segregation of society. The Minister of Education, Henrik Verwoerd explained, “There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour … What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? That is quite absurd. Education must train people in accordance with their opportunities in life, according to the sphere in which they live.”
Unable to be a part of this “travesty for education” Tutu decided to study theology at St. Peter’s Theology college in Rosettenville, and Leah trained to become a nurse.
Action/Response: After Tutu was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1960, he traveled between appointments in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Lesotho, all the while calling attention to the human rights abuses in his mother land. In 1975, he was appointed Anglican Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg. Tutu was the first black person to hold this post, and, because most of the other anti-apartheid leaders were either banned by the government or in jail, he found himself in a strategic position to voice the aspirations of black South Africans. He communicated the goals of the anti-apartheid movement frequently to the media, and, after sensing rising discontent within the youth community, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Vorster warning of an impending escalation of unrest. The Prime Minister dismissed his letter and, a month later, the Soweto Riots occurred and hundreds died in the protest.
Following the uprising, Tutu became more entrenched than ever as one of the main voices of the anti-apartheid movement. He organized opposition to apartheid amongst members of the faith community through his position as the first black Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches and continued to do so after he was appointed Archbishop of Cape Town in 1976. He appealed to foreign governments, principally the UK and the US, to adopt a policy of disinvestment in South Africa until the government recognized equal civil rights for all of its citizens.
Following F.W. de Klerk’s repeal of apartheid in 1991 and the election of President Mandela in 1994, Archbishop Tutu was appointed chair of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This body was established to bear witness to, and record the human rights crimes committed under or in reaction to apartheid policy in South Africa. Archbishop Tutu defended the need for this healing process of restorative justice and reconciliation amongst all of the citizens of the Rainbow Nation against critics who called for retribution and harsh punishment for the atrocities committed, as well as those who interpreted the hearings as witch hunts against those following policies or carrying out orders established by the former government.
Results/Accomplishments: Archbishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 (read acceptance speech). After the Truth and Reconciliation Committee hearings were completed successfully and their report was submitted to President Mandela in 1998, Archbishop Tutu has maintained his commitment to fighting for equal human rights around the globe. He has spoken on behalf of populations in strife in Tibet, Zimbabwe, the Solomon Islands, and Gaza. He is also an active proponent of health care, specifically AIDS and TB prevention and education. In 2007, Archbishop Tutu became a member of the Elders, a group of world leaders dedicated to contributing their wisdom, leadership, and support towards tackling some of the toughest global issues.
Stories/More Information:
Archbishop Tutu’s Dream for the Future – reflections on our interview with Archbishop Tutu on The Huffington Post
Entries (RSS)