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Desmond Tutu

 
Who2 Biography: Desmond Tutu, Activist / Clergyman
 

  • Born: 7 October 1931
  • Birthplace: Klerksdorp, South Africa
  • Best Known As: The bishop who won a Nobel prize for opposing apartheid

Desmond Tutu received the 1984 Nobel peace prize for his nonviolent work against apartheid, the South African government's policy of racial separateness. Raised in several communities in the Transvaal region, he was educated at a Pretoria teachers' college, a Johannesburg seminary and King's College, London. He was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church in 1961, became Bishop of Lesotho in 1976, and by 1986 was his country's highest Anglican official as Archbishop of Cape Town. In the 1970s and '80s he urged global economic pressure against South Africa and led a "defiance campaign" against a government ban on anti-apartheid demonstrations. He and other members of the clergy often intervened in confrontations between demonstrators and police or between mobs and informants. In the 1990s, with apartheid finally defeated, he headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Nelson Mandela's new government. Tutu retired as archbishop in 1996 but remained active and outspoken in domestic and world affairs.

The name Tutu, in his family's traditional IsiXhosa language, means "ash." His middle name, Mpilo, means "hope." During apartheid he downplayed his specific ethnicity in favor of wider Black unity... He married the former Nomalizo Leah Shenxane, who goes by Leah Tutu, in 1955. They have a son, Trevor, born in 1956, and three daughters: Thandeka Theresa, 1957; Naomi, 1960; and Mpho (meaning "gift"), 1963... His authorized biography, Rabble-Rouser for Peace, by South African journalist John Allen, was published in 2006.

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Biography: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
 

In the 1980s Archbishop Desmond Tutu (born 1931) became South Africa's most prominent opponent of apartheid, that country's system of racial discrimination.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1984 to Desmond Mpilo Tutu made him the most visible representative of the struggle in the Republic of South Africa against apartheid, the system by which the minority white population of South Africa dominated the black majority until 1994. It allowed whites, who constituted 20 percent of the population, to reserve for themselves about 87 percent of the land, most natural resources, and all meaningful political power. Blacks who found themselves in lands reserved for whites were arbitrarily made citizens of one of ten homelands, which the white government (but virtually no one else) called nations. In order to remove Blacks from areas reserved for whites, the government forcibly evicted many from their homes, though their families had in some cases occupied them for decades. Blacks in the Republic were relegated to the lowest-paying jobs, denied access to most public accommodations (though this policy was relaxed somewhat in the 1970s), and had drastically lower life expectancies than whites. In contrast, South African whites had one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Black opposition to these conditions began in 1912 when the African National Congress (ANC) was formed. Until the 1960s it engaged in various peaceful campaigns of protest that included marches, petitions, and boycotts - actions which availed Blacks little. After police fired in 1960 on a crowd at Sharpeville, killing 69 and wounding many others, and after the ANC leader Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for life in 1964, many Blacks decided to abandon the policy of non-violent resistance. Most ANC members, led by Oliver Tambo, left South Africa and launched a campaign of sabotage from exile. The white government increased its violence in return. In 1976 500 Black students were shot during protests, and in 1978 and 1980 Black leader Steve Biko and trade unionist Neil Aggett were killed while in police custody. Beginning in 1984 violence again swept South Africa. By the time the government declared a state of emergency in June 1986, more than 2, 000 individuals had been killed.

Against this backdrop Desmond Tutu emerged as the leading spokesman for non-violent resistance to apartheid. Born on October 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, a town in the Transvaal region, his early education was at a mission school. At the age of 14 he contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalized for 20 months. He wanted to become a doctor, but because his family could not afford the schooling, he entered teaching. When the government instituted a system of racially discriminatory education in 1957, Tutu left teaching and entered the Anglican Church. Ordained in 1961, he earned a B.A. in 1962 from the University of South Africa, and shortly thereafter a B.D. and an M.Th. from the University of London. From 1970 to 1974 he lectured at the University of Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland. In 1975 he became dean of Johannesburg, a position from which he publicly challenged white rule. He became bishop of Lesotho in 1976, and in 1985 bishop of Johannesburg. A short 14 months later, in April 1986, he was elected archbishop of Cape Town, the first Black person to head the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

By the 1980s clergymen were among the most vigorous opponents within South Africa of apartheid. Allan Boesak, a biracial minister, and Beyers Naude, head of the Christian Institute, were unusually outspoken. Naude was silenced in the late 1970s by banning, a unique South African punishment by which the victim was placed under virtual house arrest and could not speak or be quoted publicly. Tutu's international recognition as a critic of apartheid came when he became first general secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1978.

The problem faced by anti-apartheid clergymen was how to simultaneously oppose both violent resistance and apartheid, which was itself increasingly violent. Tutu's opposition was vigorous and unequivocal, and he was outspoken both in South Africa and abroad, often comparing apartheid to Nazism and Communism. As a result the government twice revoked his passport, and he was jailed briefly in 1980 after a protest march. It was thought by many that Tutu's increasing international reputation and his rigorous advocacy of non-violence protected him from harsher penalties. Tutu's view on violence reflected the tension in a Christian approach to resistance: "I will never tell anyone to pick up a gun. But I will pray for the man who picks up a gun, pray that he will be less cruel than he might otherwise have been…."

Another issue Tutu faced was whether other nations should be urged to apply economic sanctions against South Africa. The argument for sanctions stated that sanctions, by denying South Africa the investments on which its economy was dependent, would force the white government to abandon apartheid. The arguments against sanctions were that those who would suffer most would be the Blacks and that the whites were likely to become more intransigent in the face of world pressure. Tutu favored sanctions as the only hope for peaceful change. He also vigorously opposed the "constructive engagement" policy of the Reagan administration in the United States, which advocated "friendly persuasion." When the new wave of violence swept South Africa in the 1980s and the white government failed to make fundamental changes in apartheid, Tutu pronounced constructive engagement a failure. The U.S. Congress did impose some sanctions against South Africa in October 1986, overriding a veto by President Reagan.

In 1989 F.W. de Klerk was elected the new president of the Republic of South Africa. He had promised to abolish apartheid, and at the end of 1993 he made good on his promise when South Africa's first all-race elections were announced. On April 27, 1994 South Africans elected a new president, Nelson Mandela, and apartheid was finally over. Mandela aptly symbolized South Africa's new liberation, since until 1990 he had spent 27 years as a political prisoner because of his outspoken opposition to apartheid.

In 1997, Tutu received the ROBIE award for his work in humanitarianism. The award was presented by NBC sports-caster Bob Costas at the Jackie Robinson Foundation annual dinner, held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. The award came in the midst of Tutu's battle with prostate cancer, and shortly after the presentation he announced plans to undergo several months of cancer treatment in the United States. As head of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a group that investigates apartheid crimes, Mandela planned to set up an office in the United States, where he could continue his work throughout the rigorous cancer treatment.

Receiving the ROBIE was certainly not Tutu's first recognition: he was the second South African to earn the Nobel Prize. The first was Albert Luthuli of the ANC, who received it in 1960 for the same sort of opposition to apartheid.

Further Reading

For general descriptions of South African society, see Leo Marquard, The People and Policies of South Africa (4th ed., 1969) and Joseph Lelyveld, Move Your Shadow (1985). For the role of the church see Peter Walshe, Church Versus State in South Africa (1983). There is as yet no biography of Tutu. His speeches and sermons have been published in Crying in the Wilderness (1982); Hope and Suffering (1983); The Words of Desmond Tutu (1989); and The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution. His book Crying in the Wilderness contains a brief account of his life, as do numerous newspapers and journals published shortly after he received the Nobel Prize in October 1984.

 
Black Biography: Desmond Mpilo Tutu
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archbishop; activist; writer

Personal Information

Born Desmond Mpilo Tutu on October 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa; son of Zachariah (a school teacher) and Aletta Tutu; married Leah Nomalizo Shenxane, July 2, 1955; children: Trevor, Theresa, Naomi, Mpho
Education: Bantu Normal Teachers' College, Pretoria; University of South Africa, BA, 1954; St. Peter's Theological College, Johannesburg, LTh, 1960; King's College, London, BD, 1965, MTh, 1966.
Religion: Anglican.
Memberships: Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South African government, chairman, 1995-98.

Career

Madibane High School, teacher, 1955; Muncieville High School, Krugersdorp, teacher, 1956-57; St. Alban's Church, Benoni, Johannesburg, curate, 1960-61; ordained priest, 1961; St. Alban's Church, Golders Green, London, curate, 1962-65; St. Mary's, Bletchingley, Surrey, curate, 1965-66; Federal Theological Seminary, Alice, Cape Province, lecturer, 1967-69; University of Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland, lecturer, 1970-72; World Council of Churches' Theological Education Fund (TEF), England, associate director, 1972-75; St. Augustine's Church, England, curate, 1972-75; dean of Johannesburg, 1975-76; bishop of Lesotho, 1976-78; South African Council of Churches (SACC), general secretary, 1978-85; bishop of Johannesburg, 1985-86; archbishop of Cape Town, 1986-96; chancellor, University of the Western Cape, 1988; Emory University, Atlanta, William R. Cannon Distinguished Visiting Professor of Theology, 1998-2000; Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, visiting professor, 2002.

Life's Work

South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a small man with great courage. Though any kind of violence shocks him, he has personally stood up to several tormentors in South Africa's blood-spattered townships, once going so far as to save the life of a suspected impimpi, or police informer, from a fiery death inside a gasoline-doused tire. In addition, he has piloted the Anglican Church into political waters despite strong warnings about "clerical meddling in government" from more than one government officer; spoken up for the African National Congress (ANC) through its several bannings; and held on to his own belief in ultimate interracial harmony, even though events around him have pointed in other directions.

Raised Amid Apartheid

Tutu was born on October 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa. Klerksdorp, Krugersdorp, and Ventersdorp--these small Transvaal mining towns were home to Desmond Tutu when he was a child. At the heart of each town was an upper stratum of white farmers, teachers, and mine managers, plus a white middle class of artisans and storekeepers. And on the outskirts were the slums known as townships, where black families lived in corrugated iron shanties or three-room concrete houses without sewage or electricity.

No place offered a way to burst through apartheid's steel ceiling, so almost all these black families were poor. Desmond Tutu's parents were no exception. His father was a sporadically employed school principal, while his mother, a domestic servant with no formal education, was a more reliable wage-earner. Like other teens, Desmond earned his own spending money by caddying at the whites-only golf course or selling peanuts at the train station.

Desmond Tutu was a high school student in Sophiatown when he met Father Trevor Huddleston, an English parish priest who became his greatest role model. A profoundly intelligent man, Huddleston strode through life bringing out the best in his poverty-stricken parishioners and encouraging them to stand up for themselves against oppression. He was rarely at rest, yet somehow he found time to visit Desmond Tutu every week when tuberculosis forced a twenty-month interruption to his years at Western High School. Huddleston taught him to adopt the daily prayer routine from which he has never wavered and even brought him the schoolbooks he needed to graduate on schedule in 1950. Young Tutu then opted for the Bantu Teachers' Training College rather than the medical school, which he would have preferred but could not afford. At the end of 1954, he graduated, expecting to spend the rest of his life guiding high school students through English and Xhosa literature.

Government policy decided otherwise. For half a dozen years, the Nationalists had been building a new regime in South Africa. Carefully tailored by the Minister of Native Affairs Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, the new order featured such guidelines as the Group Areas Act forbidding people of different races to live side by side; a tightened pass law requiring every black South African over the age of 16 to carry a travel/work permit, and a limit of 72 hours that blacks could stay in cities to look for work.

Verwoerd got around to altering black education in 1955, when Tutu was only one year into his career. The government plan, according to Verwoerd, would produce a black population suited for the manual labor needed by the nation's mines and factories. So black teachers would now be permitted to teach only a scaled-back vocational syllabus, for which they would receive proportionately scaled-back salaries. Attempts to defy this ban, he added, would carry a heavy fine. With an eye on the ultraconservative voter who would later raise him to the prime minister's seat, Verwoerd rammed his point home by removing the responsibility for black education from the provincial education departments and assuming it himself.

Resignations from black teachers came quickly. Tutu himself quit in 1958 rather than submit to the indignity of what he termed "education for serfdom." The same year, noted Judith Bentley in Archbishop Tutu of South Africa, he entered St. Peter's Theological College in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, with a fatalistic sense of destiny he later described as "being grabbed by God by the scruff of the neck in order to spread His word, whether it is convenient or not."

"Grabbed by God"

He was ordained in December of 1960, at the end of a bitter year during which a pass-law protest by black protest groups had left the blood of 69 dead and 180 wounded soaking into the earth of a Transvaal township named Sharpeville. The tragedy brought on a wave of jailings, bannings, and brutal interrogations that left middle-of-the-road blacks quaking with fear and sorely in need of faith. As the newly-minted curate at St. Alban's Church, Benoni, Tutu did not disappoint his own parishioners. He filled them with hope in a better future, preaching with the blood-and-thunder style that quickly became his trademark.

St. Alban's gave way to a church of his own, but Tutu was there for a very short time. Verwoerd had now brought apartheid to the church, which therefore needed black academics to train black clergy. Tutu's teaching experience, his two degrees, and his conscientiousness made him an ideal candidate for this duty, though his lack of a master's degree had to be remedied. To fill this gap, his former seminary principal wrote a special note to the dean of King's College at London University. The Tutu family--he had married Leah Normalizo Shenxane in 1955--set out for England in September of 1962.

While in Britain, the family traveled wherever they pleased, lived where it suited them, and entered each place without looking for the entrance marked "blacks." They were warmly welcomed, first by the all-white St. Alban's Church in Golders Green, where Tutu was a curate, and later by the Anglican congregation of St. Mary the Virgin in Bletchingley, Surrey, where he was sent after his 1965 graduation from King's College. Tutu's Bletchingley parishioners treated him at first with great respect, listening courteously to his sermons about interracial harmony and absorbing his warnings about the South African bulldozers which often demolished a flimsy township house in minutes. But by the time he left in 1967, courtesy had become friendship on equal terms--an achievement that would have been rare at home.

Tutu found great changes when he returned to South Africa to fulfill his promise of training black clergy. An economic boom and the 1966 murder of Verwoerd in the House of Assembly had increased support for the Nationalists. Verwoerd's place was instantly filled by the former Minister of Justice, Balthazar Johannes Vorster, who had stepped up the forced relocation policy that segregated blacks in South Africa.

In line with Vorster's decree, the seminary had been moved to Alice, a Western Cape town also housing the newly-tribalized Fort Hare University. Though Alice was far from his big-city roots, Tutu found a tranquil pleasure in teaching Greek and theology, sitting on education committees, and broadening his students' horizons with a taste of the black theology that was a recent offshoot of the American black consciousness movement. He also took his turn preaching at the campus next door, where he did not hesitate to compare the lives of black South Africans to oppressed people in other parts of the world.

His words fell on fertile ground, for black consciousness had come to Fort Hare University with an impact that gave the students the courage to demand an end to inferior education. Tutu's personal philosophy supported interracial dialogue rather than the students' staunch black separatism, but he loyally supported them as the campus exploded into strikes, arguments between demonstrators and the white rector, and finally sit-ins involving 500 of the university's 550 member student body. Then he was forced to stand helplessly by as whistling police whips and snarling dogs drove black students out of the Fort Hare campus.

Vorster had sterilized Fort Hare. Still, black consciousness spread, its message borne by the all-black South African Students' Organization, and its leader a charismatic former medical student named Steven Biko.

Replaced a White Man

In 1972, after two years of teaching in Lesotho, an enclave lying within South Africa, Tutu was offered an associate directorship with the Britain-based Theological Education Fund (TEF), a twelve-year-old organization that had been formed to loosen the tie between Third World churches and their missionary founders by funding theological training for their clergy. The TEF needed an experienced negotiator who could assess church conditions in different parts of Africa, and they found the highly educated and poised Reverend Tutu ideal for the post.

He enjoyed the work, expecting to complete the full five years specified in his contract. But in early 1975 the elderly bishop of Johannesburg resigned, and Tutu was asked to replace his successor, a white dean.

As the dean of Johannesburg from 1975 to 1976, Tutu strove to integrate the area's congregation. From the reticent brownstone exterior of St. Mary's Cathedral, Johannesburg seemed impossibly far from the township Anglicans Tutu now tried to attract, but he succeeded in drawing the black population of Soweto closer by living there himself rather than in the official deanery in wealthy white Johannesburg. Ignoring any white parishioners who preferred to leave his resolutely multiracial congregation, he involved the remaining members in his integrated choir and other groups.

He also found time to renew his ties with Biko's black consciousness group. While Tutu was in Britain, Biko had been jailed, but his philosophy of "Black man, you're on your own!" had not been silenced, despite the bullyings of the security police. Instead, it was bubbling with a rage that was beginning to alarm the nonviolent Tutu when he walked through the streets of Soweto.

Soweto Erupted in Riots

By 1976 the fuse of black fury became dangerously short. It began to burn down early in the year, after black education was hastily revised to provide a larger labor pool for a burgeoning economy. Soweto students were unmoved by the absence of extra classrooms and the presence of unqualified new teachers, but they exploded into uncontrollable frenzy when they learned that English, their former medium of instruction, would now share honors with South Africa's other official language, the hated Afrikaans.

Rumblings against the "language of oppression," burst into outraged school boycotts by April. In early May, Tutu wrote to the prime minister to warn him that great trouble was on the way, but his letter was dismissed as propaganda. On June 16, 1976, the "language of oppression" met the language of fury via 15,000 Soweto schoolchildren. The township exploded into swirling clouds of teargas, stones, bullets, and fire that killed more than 600 Sowetans and left burnt-out hulks where the schools had been.

The next month, Tutu was consecrated as bishop of Lesotho, and he did not return to South Africa until 1977, when he was asked to speak at a funeral that shocked the world. The victim was black pride leader Steve Biko, who had died in custody. Biko was borne to his grave by 15,000 mourners. His coffin's elaborate carvings and velvet pall could not hide the fact that his killers--the police--had smashed in the back of his head. Nor could Tutu's most fervent prayers stop the murder of two black policemen, representatives of the hated apartheid regime.

Meddled in Politics

Biko's death was a turning point for Tutu. The government had long ago made it clear that Church "meddling" in politics would not be tolerated, but Tutu had now come to the conclusion that there was no alternative if apartheid was to be conquered without bloodshed.

In 1978 he put his conviction into practice by accepting a position as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), a ten-year-old organization with a decidedly political bent. "Troublemaking" activities, in full swing when Tutu arrived, included backing of the newly assertive trade unions, protesting the forced removals of the three million dispossessed people who had lost their homes since 1960, and supporting the families of detainees. Generous SACC grants to antiapartheid organizations like the South West African People's Organization and the Zambia-based ANC were likewise unpopular with the government.

A SACC affiliation with the World Council of Churches gave Tutu international media exposure. Making the most of this opportunity, he used television talk shows to push for sanctions. In 1979 he told a Danish television host that Denmark should not buy South African coal. The South African government retaliated swiftly by revoking his passport; overseas engagements had to be hastily cancelled.

This same scenario was repeated more than once, boomeranging in South Africa's face in 1982, when Tutu was unable to fly to New York to accept an honorary doctorate in theology from Columbia University. The government faced worldwide embarrassment when Columbia University president Michael Sovern broke a precedent for only the third time in his university's 244-year history, presenting Tutu's degree personally in Johannesburg.

Investigated by the Eloff Commission

The government found Tutu's work with the SACC even more irritating than his outspoken views on sanctions. In 1981 Prime Minister P. W. Botha, Vorster's successor, charged him with financial irregularities, to which he added a charge of inciting political unrest. He then appointed the Eloff Commission to probe the SACC.

Proceedings began in November. Tutu kept calm, accepting without protest the state's triumphant revelation that the SACC's previous director had misappropriated some R250,000 (R stands for the "rand," which is South Africa's monetary unit) in funds, R14,000 of which he had given Tutu towards the purchase of a house. (Tutu, who had thought this figure came from overseas donors, returned the money immediately.)

As expected, the state condemned SACC support of the ANC and other antiapartheid organizations and recommended a new law barring pleas for disinvestment in South Africa, but was otherwise unable to skewer the organization.

Won Nobel Peace Prize

By 1984 Tutu was in the headlines again, this time as South Africa's second black Nobel Peace laureate. His predecessor, 1961 winner Albert Luthuli, had been restricted to his remote Zululand village immediately on his return from Norway. Tutu was luckier. Television had become a South African staple, revealing the plight of black South Africa for all the world to see. So instead of fading into obscurity as Luthuli had, he became a head-turner, creating increasing respect for the idea of economic sanctions against South Africa.

Tutu's feat was not greeted with universal joy. There was silence from the South African government and sharp criticism in the Johannesburg Sunday Times from novelist Alan Paton, whose post-Holocaust novel Cry the Beloved Country had riveted attention on apartheid. "I do not understand how you can put a man out of work for a high moral principle," wrote Paton, attacking Tutu's support of sanctions. "It would go against my principles to ... put a man--and especially a black man--out of a job."

More violent opposition in the form of a bomb scare met the new laureate on the night of the ceremony itself, when the banquet hall had to be evacuated for 90 minutes. But bomb scares no longer unnerved Tutu. "It ... tells you how desperate our enemies are," he remarked in an interview for Drum magazine.

Advocated for New Constitution

In 1985 Tutu was elected bishop of Johannesburg. His 300,000-strong diocese was not a peaceful one, for the townships were reaching the crescendo of another great antiapartheid uprising. The trigger this time was the new South African constitution, which featured a parliamentary structure allowing for representation by the Indian and "colored" (mulatto, or mixed race) population groups, but no representation at all by blacks.

Black reaction was immediate and predictable. Factories and mines were silenced by strikes, to which 200,000 students added their own protests. Even Tutu commented bitterly that his several honorary doctorates gave him less power over his own future than any uneducated voter would have under the new constitution. It had become an intolerable situation.

Taking his usual multiracial approach, Tutu invited U.S. senator Edward Kennedy, a staunch antiapartheid supporter, to tour South Africa as an impartial witness. But the visit was not a success, for Tutu had failed to consider the vehement black separatism of Steve Biko's supporters, now known as the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO). Kennedy arrived in January of 1985, spent a night in Tutu's Soweto home, and toured the townships, which he pronounced "appalling." However, he was able to achieve little else. Wherever Kennedy went, his footsteps were dogged by AZAPO supporters, whose shrieks of "white imperialism" and "trying to build support for his own presidential bid" drowned every word he said. In the end, even a long-awaited antiapartheid speech in Soweto Cathedral was prudently cancelled. AZAPO members were triumphant; Tutu was heartbroken. At a time when black South African unity was vital, he had found more antiapartheid support overseas than at home.

Appointed Archbishop of Cape Town

In 1986 Tutu was elected archbishop of Cape Town, a position which also made him the titular head of the Anglican Church in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, and Lesotho. As befitted the leader of almost 2 million Anglicans, he was enthroned in September of that year at a ceremony attended by more than 1,300 guests, among them Coretta Scott King, the widow of American civil rights martyr Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now South Africa's highest-ranking Anglican cleric, Tutu participated boldly in the defiance campaign that marked the 1989 elections. Resigned to the mounting death toll, he led a march to a whites-only beach, joining supporters who were chased off with whips. He was teargassed along with other demonstrators while on his way to a church in Cape Town's Guguletu township and was briefly arrested for protesting the capture of fellow clergymen.

The new state president of the Republic of South Africa, F. W. de Klerk, came to power in 1989 on the strength of his pledge to speed reforms and abolish apartheid. Sophisticated, well-traveled, and a keen observer, Tutu was not dazzled by these campaign promises. "Nine years ago, Pik Botha [then foreign minister] said ... that we are moving away from discrimination based on race," he told Maclean's magazine in 1989, "and here we are still moving away from it under a constitution that excludes 73 percent of the population."

Helped Heal the Wounds of Apartheid

Unmoved by violence from both black and white right-wingers, F. W. de Klerk worked hand-in-hand with black politicians to dismantle apartheid as swiftly as possible. At the end of 1993 came the announcement for which Tutu had worked and waited for so many years: democratic elections listing leaders from every color of South Africa's racial palette had been slated for April 27, 1994. Nelson Mandela won the election to become first black president of South Africa, ending three centuries of white rule. Mandela pledged to work toward a reconciliation that would heal the scars of the former system of apartheid. In his inaugural address, Mandela said, "We saw our country tear itself apart in terrible conflict.... The time for the healing of wounds has come.... Never, never again will this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another."

To lead the "healing of wounds," Mandela established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate crimes committed under apartheid. The commission scrutinized the political activities between 1960 and the date Mandela took office. Mandela appointed Tutu chairman of the commission. Tutu presided over the commission's hearings that began in 1996. By the time the commission issued its final report in 1998, it had heard the testimony of 21,000 victims of apartheid. About the commission's findings, Tutu said on many occasions that he was "appalled at the evil we have uncovered." Nevertheless, Tutu said, "People need the opportunity to tell their story. In telling the story, there is a healing that happens. Without forgiveness there is no future." Except for ongoing amnesty investigations, the commission ended its work on July 31, 1998.

Speaking a decade after the commission began its work, Tutu explained the underlying logic of the commission's mandate for "restorative justice" in his Longford Lecture in 2004: "In the South African experience it was decided that we would have justice yes, but not retributive justice. No, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process was an example of restorative justice. In our case it was based on an African concept very difficult to render into English as there is no precise equivalent. I refer to Ubuntu/botho...the essence of being human. We say a person is a person through other persons. We are made for togetherness, to live in a delicate network of interdependence.... I would not know how to walk, talk, think, behave as a human person except by learning it all from other human beings. For ubuntu ... the greatest good is communal harmony.... [T]he purpose of the penal process is to heal the breach, to restore good relationships and to redress the balance. Thus it is that we set out to work for reconciliation between the victim and the perpetrator." Although full reconciliation in South Africa was predicted to need at least a generation to come to pass, Tutu gave examples of how such reconciliation has already occurred in South Africa and gave hope that it could occur elsewhere in the world.

In 1996 Tutu announced his retirement from his position as Archbishop of Cape Town. He remained active, however, taking visiting professorships at universities and lecturing throughout the world. With his wife, Tutu established the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in 1998. The Centre's mission was to foster peace and understanding throughout the world. By 2004, the Centre had established a leadership academy to train people in Tutu's philosophies of peace. Although still a fledgling organization, the Centre promises to continue fostering Tutu's legacy of moral leadership as he more fully embraces his retirement.

Awards

Onassis Foundation, Athena Prize, 1980; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984; Emmanuel College, Boston, Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, 1988; Legion d'Honneur award, France, 1998; numerous honorary degrees.

Works

Selected writings

  • Crying in the Wilderness, Mowbray, 1982.
  • Hope and Suffering: Sermons & Speeches, Eerdmans, 1984.
  • The Words of Desmond Tutu, selected by Naomi Tutu, Newmarket Press, 1989.
  • The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution, John Allen, ed., Doubleday, 1994.
  • An African Prayer Book, Doubleday, 1995.
  • No Future without Forgiveness, Doubleday, 2000.
  • God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Times, Doubleday, 2004.

Further Reading

Books

  • Battle, Michael Jesse, Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu, Pilgrim, 1997.
  • Bentley, Judith, Archbishop Tutu of South Africa, Enslow Publishers, 1988.
  • Du Boulay, Shirley, Tutu: Voice of the Voiceless, Eerdmans, 1988.
  • Glickman, Harvey, ed., Political Leaders of Contemporary Africa South of the Sahara, Greenwood Press, 1992.
  • Mungazi, Dickson A., In the Footsteps of the Masters: Desmond M. Tutu and Abel T. Muzorewa, Praeger, 2000.
  • Sparks, Allister. The Mind of South Africa. Knopf, 1990.
  • Tlhagale, Buti, and Itumeleng Mosala, eds., Hammering Swords into Ploughshares: Essays in Honour of Archbishop Mpilo Desmond Tutu, Skotaville Publishers, 1986.
  • Tutu, Desmond Mpilo, Hope and Suffering: Sermons & Speeches, Eerdmans, 1983.
  • Tutu, Desmond Mpilo, The Words of Desmond Tutu, selected by Naomi Tutu, Newmarket Press, 1989.
Periodicals
  • Drum, February 1985, p. 34.
  • Ebony, June 1988, p. 168.
  • Economist, August 26, 1989, p. 31.
  • Maclean's, March 13, 1989, p. 22.
  • Newsweek, September 26, 1977, p. 41; October 10, 1977; October 31, 1977, p. 57; October 29, 1984, p. 89; September 11, 1989, p. 34.
  • New York Times, November 14, 1977, p. 1; August 4, 1982, p. B4; January 1, 1985, p. 3; January 3, 1985, p. 3; January 6, 1985, p. 7; January 7, 1985, p. A3; January 13, 1985, p. 10; January 14, 1985, p. 3; April 15, 1986, p. A3. Sechaba, December 1984, p. 16.
  • Sunday Times (Johannesburg), October 21, 1984, p. 35.
  • Time, September 15, 1986, p. 40.
  • Unesco Courier, June 1990, p. 37.
  • Washington Post Magazine, February 16, 1986, p. 8A.
On-line
  • "Archbishop Desmond Tutu: The Longford Lecture," The Independent, http://argument.independent.co.uk/podium/story.jsp?story=492055 (April 12, 2004).
  • The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, www.tutu.org (April 12, 2004).

— Gillian Wolf and Sara Pendergast

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Sir Desmond Mpilo Tutu
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(born Oct. 7, 1931, Klerksdorp, S.Af.) South African Anglican cleric. He studied theology at the University of South Africa and King's College, London. He became an Anglican priest in 1961 and bishop of Lesotho in 1976. In 1978 he became general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and an eloquent and outspoken advocate for the rights of black South Africans. He emphasized nonviolent protest and encouraged other countries to apply economic pressure to South Africa. In 1984 he received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in opposing apartheid. In 1986 he was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town and titular head of South Africa's 1.6-million-member Anglican Church. He retired from the primacy in 1996 and became chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, charged with hearing evidence of human-rights violations under white rule. Since 1988 he has been chancellor of the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, S.Af.

For more information on Sir Desmond Mpilo Tutu, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Desmond Mpilo Tutu
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Tutu, Desmond Mpilo, 1931–, South African religious leader. Educated in South Africa and London and ordained in 1961, he became (1975) the first black Anglican dean of Johannesburg. As general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (1978–84) he was an outspoken campaigner against apartheid and was awarded (1984) the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent advocacy of reform. He was the first black elected (1986) archbishop of Cape Town (the Anglican primate of South Africa), serving until 1996. Tutu has remained active in South Africa's political affairs and headed (1996–2003) the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was responsible for investigating human-rights abuses during the apartheid era. Tutu also has been a critic of Zimbabwe's President Mugabe and of the reluctance of other African leaders to criticize Mugabe's repressive regime.
 
Quotes By: Bishop Desmond Tutu
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Quotes:

"I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum."

"I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute -- a white skin."

 
Wikipedia: Desmond Tutu
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The Most Reverend
 Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town
Province Anglican Church of Southern Africa
See Cape Town (retired)
Enthroned 1986
Ended 1996
Predecessor Philip Welsford Richmond Russell
Successor Njongonkulu Ndungane
Ordination 1960 as Priest
Other Bishop of Lesotho
Bishop of Johannesburg
Archbishop of Cape Town
Born 7 October 1931 (1931-10-07) (age 77)
Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa

Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African cleric and activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. In 1984, Tutu became the second South African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tutu was the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa). Tutu chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and is currently the chairman of The Elders. Tutu is vocal in his defence of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. Tutu also campaigns to fight AIDS, homophobia, poverty and racism. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2005.[1] Tutu has also compiled several books of his speeches and sayings.

Contents

Early years

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born in Klerksdorp, Transvaal on 7 October 1931, the second of the three children of Zacheriah Zililo Tutu and his wife, Aletta, although the only son.[2] Tutu's family moved to Johannesburg when he was aged twelve. His father was a teacher and his mother a cleaner and cook at a school for the blind.[3] Here he met Trevor Huddleston who was a parish priest in the black slum of Sophiatown. "One day", said Tutu, "I was standing in the street with my mother when a white man in a priest's clothing walked past. As he passed us he took off his hat to my mother. I couldn't believe my eyes -- a white man who greeted a black working class woman!"[3]

Although Tutu wanted to become a physician, his family could not afford the training, and he followed his father's footsteps into teaching. Tutu studied at the Pretoria Bantu Normal College from 1951 to 1953, and went on to teach at Johannesburg Bantu High School and at Munsienville High School in Mogale City. However, he resigned following the passage of the Bantu Education Act, in protest of the poor educational prospects for black South Africans. He continued his studies, this time in theology, at St Peter's Theology College in Rosettenville and in 1960 was ordained as an Anglican priest following in the footsteps of his mentor and fellow activist, Trevor Huddleston.

Tutu then travelled to King's College London, (1962–1966), where he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Theology. During this time he worked as a part-time curate, first at St Albans Cathedral and then at St. Mary's Church in Bletchingley, Surrey. He later returned to South Africa and from 1967 until 1972 used his lectures to highlight the circumstances of the African population. He wrote a letter to Prime Minister B. J. Vorster, in which he described the situation in South Africa as a "powder barrel that can explode at any time": the letter was never answered. He became chaplain at the University of Fort Hare in 1967, a hotbed of dissent and one of the few quality universities for African students in the southern part of Africa. From 1970 to 1972, Tutu lectured at the National University of Lesotho.

Tutu faced a difficult balancing act: voicing black discontent while leading a largely white parish. He alternated charm with challenges as he appealed to his parish's Afrikaner heritage, recalling that their forebears had endured British concentration camps. Somewhat to the bewilderment of other black leaders, he patiently courted Vorster’s successor, P. W. Botha, explaining that even Moses continued to reason with Pharaoh. But white liberals grew nervous when Tutu called for a boycott of South African products.[4] In 1972 Tutu returned to the UK, where he was appointed vice-director of the Theological Education Fund of the World Council of Churches, at Bromley in Kent. He returned to South Africa in 1975 and was appointed Anglican Dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg -— the first "Black" person to hold that position.

Personal life

On 2 July 1955, Tutu married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane, a teacher whom he had met while at college. They had four children: Trevor Thamsanqa Tutu, Theresa Thandeka Tutu, Naomi Nontombi Tutu and Mpho Andrea Tutu, all of whom attended the Waterford Kamhlaba School in Swaziland.[5]

His son, Trevor Tutu, caused a bombscare at East London Airport in 1989 and was arrested. In 1991 he was convicted of contravening the Civil Aviation Act by falsely claiming there had been a bomb on board a South African Airways' plane at East London Airport.[6] The bomb threat delayed the Johannesburg bound flight for more than three hours, costing South African Airways some R28000. At the time Trevor Tutu announced his intention to appeal against his sentence, but failed to arrive for the appeal hearings. He forfeited his bail of R15000.[6] He was due to begin serving his sentence in 1993, but failed to hand himself over to prison authorities. He was finally arrested in Johannesburg in August 1997. He applied for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which was granted in 1997. He was then released from Goodwood Prison in Cape Town where he had begun serving his three-and-a-half year prison sentence after a court in East London refused to grant him bail.[7]

Naomi Tutu, founded the Tutu Foundation for Development and Relief in Southern Africa, based in Hartford, Connecticut. She has followed in her father's footsteps as a human rights activist and is currently a program coordinator for the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee.[8] Desmund Tutu's other daughter, Mpho Tutu, has also followed her father's footsteps and in 2004 was ordained an Episcopal priest by her father.[9] She is also the founder and executive director of the Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage and the chairperson of the board of the Global AIDS Alliance.[10]

In 1997, Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent successful treatment in the US. He subsequently became patron of the South African Prostate Cancer Foundation which was established in 2007.[11]

Tutu's role during apartheid

Apartheid in South Africa
Events and Projects

Sharpeville Massacre
Soweto uprising · Treason Trial
Rivonia Trial · Church Street bombing
CODESA · St James Church massacre

Organisations

ANC · IFP · AWB · Black Sash · CCB
Conservative Party · ECC · PP · RP
PFP · HNP · MK · PAC · SACP · UDF
Broederbond · National Party
COSATU · SADF · SAP

People

P. W. Botha · Oupa Gqozo · D. F. Malan
Nelson Mandela · Desmond Tutu
F. W. de Klerk · Walter Sisulu
Helen Suzman · Harry Schwarz
Andries Treurnicht · H. F. Verwoerd
Oliver Tambo · B. J. Vorster
Kaiser Matanzima · Jimmy Kruger
Steve Biko · Mahatma Gandhi
Joe Slovo · Trevor Huddleston

Places

Bantustan · District Six · Robben Island
Sophiatown · South-West Africa
Soweto · Sun City · Vlakplaas

Other aspects

Afrikaner nationalism
Apartheid laws · Freedom Charter
Sullivan Principles · Kairos Document
Disinvestment campaign
South African Police

In 1976 protests in Soweto, also known as the Soweto Riots, against the government's use of Afrikaans as a compulsory medium of instruction in black schools became a massive uprising against apartheid. From then on Tutu supported an economic boycott of his country. He vigorously opposed the "constructive engagement" policy of the Reagan administration in the United States, which advocated "friendly persuasion". Tutu rather supported disinvestment, although it hit the poor hardest, for if disinvestment threw blacks out of work, Tutu argued, at least they would be suffering "with a purpose".In 1985 the U.S and the U.K (Two primary investors into South Africa) stopped any investments. As a result, disinvestment did succeed, causing the value of the Rand to plunge down more than 35 percent, and pressuring the government toward reform. Tutu pressed the advantage and organised peaceful marches which brought 30 000 people onto the streets of Cape Town. That was the turning point: within months, Nelson Mandela was freed from prison, and apartheid was beginning to crumble.[4]

Tutu was Bishop of Lesotho from 1976 until 1978, when he became Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches. From this position, he was able to continue his work against apartheid with agreement from nearly all churches. Tutu consistently advocated reconciliation between all parties involved in apartheid through his writings and lectures at home and abroad. Tutu's opposition to apartheid was vigorous and unequivocal, and he was outspoken both in South Africa and abroad. He often compared apartheid to Nazism and Communism, as a result the government twice revoked his passport, and he was jailed briefly in 1980 after a protest march. It was thought by many that Tutu's increasing international reputation and his rigorous advocacy of non-violence protected him from harsher penalties. Tutu was also harsh in his criticism of the violent tactics of some anti-apartheid groups such as the African National Congress and denounced terrorism and Communism. When a new constitution was proposed for South Africa in 1983 to defend against the anti-apartheid movement, Tutu helped form the National Forum Committee to fight the constitutional changes.[12]

In 1985, Tutu was appointed the Bishop of Johannesburg before he became the first black person to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa when, on 7 September 1986, he became Archbishop of Cape Town on the retirement of former Archbishop Philip Welsford Richmond Russell. From 1987 to 1997 he was president of the All Africa Conference of Churches. In 1989 he was invited to Birmingham, England, United Kingdom as part of Citywide Christian Celebrations. Tutu and his wife visited many establishments including the Nelson Mandela School in Sparkbrook.

Tutu was considered as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1990, however George Carey was chosen in his stead. Tutu has commented that he is "glad" that he was not chosen, as once installed in Lambeth Palace, he would have been homesick for South Africa, unhappy to be away from home during a critical time in the country's history.[13]

In 1990, Tutu and the ex-Vice Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape Professor Jakes Gerwel founded the Desmond Tutu Educational Trust. The Trust was established to fund developmental programmes in tertiary education and provides capacity building at 17 historically disadvantaged institutions. Tutu's work as a mediator in order to prevent all-out racial war was evident at the funeral of South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani in 1993. Tutu spurred a crowd of 120,000 to repeat after him the chants, over and over: "We will be free!", "All of us!", "Black and white together!" and finished his speech saying:

"We are the rainbow people of God! We are unstoppable! Nobody can stop us on our march to victory! No one, no guns, nothing! Nothing will stop us, for we are moving to freedom! We are moving to freedom and nobody can stop us! For God is on our side!"[14]

In 1993, he was a patron of the Cape Town Olympic Bid Committee. In 1994 he was an appointed a patron of the World Campaign Against Military and Nuclear Collaboration with South Africa, Beacon Millennium and Action from Ireland. In 1995 he was appointed a Chaplain and Sub-Prelate of the Venerable Order of Saint John by Queen Elizabeth II,[15] and he became a patron of the American Harmony Child Foundation and the Hospice Association of Southern Africa.

Tutu's role since apartheid

The 14th Dalai Lama & Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winners. Photo by Carey Linde. 2004

After the fall of apartheid, Tutu headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996 and was made emeritus Archbishop of Cape Town, an honorary title that is unusual in the Anglican church[16] He was succeeded by Njongonkulu Ndungane. At a thanksgiving for Tutu upon his retirement as Archbishop in 1996, Nelson Mandela said:

His joy in our diversity and his spirit of forgiveness are as much part of his immeasurable contribution to our nation as his passion for justice and his solidarity with the poor.[17]

Tutu is generally credited with coining the term Rainbow Nation as a metaphor for post-apartheid South Africa after 1994 under African National Congress rule. The expression has since entered mainstream consciousness to describe South Africa's ethnic diversity.

Since his retirement, Tutu has worked as a global activist on issues pertaining to democracy, freedom and human rights. In 2006, Tutu launched a global campaign, organised by Plan, to ensure that all children were registered at birth, as an unregistered child did not officially exist and was vulnerable to traffickers and during disasters.[18] Tutu is the Patron of the educational improvement charity, Link Community Development.

He frequently joins and initiates actions with his fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Dalai Lama. In March 2008 he was joined by more than 40 celebrities and 10,000 signatories in a letter on TheCommunity.com urging Chinese officials to "stop naming, blaming and defaming the Dalai Lama, and appealed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit and report on Tibet to the international community.[19]

Role in South Africa

Tutu is widely regarded as "South Africa's moral conscience"[20] and has been described by former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, as "sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu's voice will always be the voice of the voiceless".[17] Since his retirement, Tutu has worked to critique the new South African government. Tutu has been vocal in condemnation of corruption, the ineffectiveness of the ANC-led government to deal with poverty, and the recent outbreaks of xenophobic violence in townships across South Africa.

After a decade of freedom for South Africa, Tutu was honoured with the invitation to deliver the annual Nelson Mandela Foundation Lecture. On 23 November 2004 Tutu was given the address entitled, "Look to the Rock from Which You Were Hewn." This lecture, critical of the ANC-controlled government, stirred a pot of controversy between Tutu and Thabo Mbeki, calling into question "the right to criticise."[21]

He made a stinging attack against South Africa's political elite, saying the country was "sitting on a powder keg"[22] because of its failure to alleviate poverty a decade after apartheid's end. Tutu also said that attempts to boost black economic ownership were only benefiting an elite minority, while political "kowtowing" within the ruling ANC was hampering democracy. Tutu asked, "What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?"[22]

Tutu criticised politicians for debating whether to give the poor an income grant of $16 (£12) a month and said the idea should be seriously considered. Tutu has often spoken in support of the Basic Income Grant (BIG) which has so far been defeated in parliament. After the first round of volleys were fired, South African Press Association journalist, Ben Maclennan reported Tutu's response as: "Thank you Mr President for telling me what you think of me, that I am--a liar with scant regard for the truth, and a charlatan posing with his concern for the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the voiceless."[23]

Tutu warned of corruption shortly after the re-election of the African National Congress government of South Africa, saying that they "stopped the gravy train just long enough to get on themselves." [24] In August 2006 Tutu publicly urged Jacob Zuma, the South African politician who had been accused of sexual crimes and corruption, to drop out of the ANC's presidential succession race. He said in a public lecture that he would not be able to hold his "head high" if Zuma became leader after being accused both of rape and corruption. In September 2006, Tutu repeated his opposition to Zuma's candidacy as ANC leader due to Zuma's "moral failings"."[25]

The head of the Congress of South African Students condemned Tutu as a "loose cannon" and a "scandalous man" — a reaction which prompted an angry Mbeki to side with Tutu. Zuma's personal advisor responded by accusing Tutu of having double standards and "selective amnesia" (as well as being old). Elias Khumalo claims Tutu "had found it so easy to accept the apology from the apartheid government that committed unspeakable atrocities against millions of South Africans", yet now "cannot find it in his heart to accept the apology from this humble man who has erred". Tutu and Zuma’s public criticism of each other are reflections of a turbulent time in South African politics.[26]

Tutu has condemned the xenophobic violence which occurred throughout South Africa in May 2008. Tutu, who once intervened in the apartheid years to prevent a mob necklacing a man, said that when South Africans were fighting against apartheid they had been supported by people around the world and particularly in Africa. Although they were poor, other Africans welcomed South Africans as refugees, and allowed liberation movements to have bases in their territory even if it meant those countries were going to be attacked by the South African Defence force. Tutu called on South Africans to end the violence as thousands of refugees have sought refuge in shelters.[27]

Chairman of The Elders

On 18 July 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Tutu convened The Elders, a group of world leaders to contribute their wisdom, leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world's toughest problems. Mandela announced its formation in a speech on his 89th birthday. Tutu is serving as its Chair. Other founding members include Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, Mary Robinson, Muhammad Yunus and Aung San Suu Kyi, whose chair was left symbolically empty due to her confinement as a political prisoner in Burma.

"This group can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions need to be taken,” Mandela commented. “Together we will work to support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict, and inspire hope where there is despair."[28] The Elders will be independently funded by a group of Founders, including Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel, Ray Chambers, Michael Chambers, Bridgeway Foundation, Pam Omidyar, Humanity United, Amy Robbins, Shashi Ruia, Dick Tarlow and the United Nations Foundation.

Role in the Third World

Tutu has focused on drawing awareness to issues such as poverty, AIDS and non-democratic governments in the Third World. In particular he has focused on issues in Zimbabwe and Palestine. Tutu also led The Elders' first mission to travel to Sudan in September-October 2007 to foster peace in the Darfur crisis. "Our hope is that we can keep Darfur in the spotlight and spur on governments to help keep peace in the region," said Tutu.[29]

Tutu has also been vocal in his condemnation of Chinese crackdowns on Tibetan activists. Tutu spoke at a candle-lit vigil on the eve of the San Francisco relay. Tutu does not support a full boycott of the Olympic Games, but he has called on the heads of States worldwide to not attend the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[30]

"For God's sake, for the sake of our children, for the sake of their children, for the sake of the beautiful people of Tibet - don't go. Tell your counterparts in Beijing you wanted to come but looked at your schedule and realised you have something else to do."[31]

Zimbabwe

Tutu has been vocal in his criticism of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe as well as the South African government's policy of quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe. In 2007 he said the "quiet diplomacy" pursued by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) had "not worked at all" and he called on Britain and the West to pressure SADC, including South Africa, which was chairing talks between President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, to set firm deadlines for action, with consequences if they were not met.[32] Tutu has often criticized Robert Mugabe in the past and he once described the autocratic leader as "a cartoon figure of an archetypical African dictator".[20] In 2008, he called for the international community to intervene in Zimbabwe - by force if necessary.[33] Mugabe, on the other hand, has called Tutu an "angry, evil and embittered little bishop".[34]

We Africans should hang our heads in shame. How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa? After the horrible things done to hapless people in Harare, has come the recent crackdown on members of the opposition ... what more has to happen before we who are leaders, religious and political, of our mother Africa are moved to cry out "Enough is enough?"[35]

He has often stated that all leaders in Africa should condemn Zimbabwe: "What an awful blot on our copy book. Do we really care about human rights, do we care that people of flesh and blood, fellow Africans, are being treated like rubbish, almost worse than they were ever treated by rabid racists?"[20] After the Zimbabwean presidential elections in April 2008, Tutu expressed his hope that Mugabe would step down after it was initially reported that Mugabe had lost the elections. Tutu reiterated his support of the democratic process and hoped that Mugabe would adhere to the voice of the people:

That is democracy. Democracy is, you change government when people decide. I mean when your time is over, your time is over. We hope the transition will be a peaceful one, relatively peaceful, and that Mr Mugabe will step down with dignity, gracefully.[36]

Tutu called Mugabe "someone we were very proud of", as he "did a fantastic job, and it’s such a great shame, because he had a wonderful legacy. If he had stepped down ten or so years ago he would be held in very, very high regard. And I still want to say we must honour him for the things that he did do, and just say what a shame."[36]

Tutu stated that he feared that riots would break out in Zimbabwe if the election results were ignored. He proposed that a peace-keeping force should be sent to the region to ensure stability.

Anything that would save the possibilities of bloodshed, of conflict, I am quite willing to support. The people of Zimbabwe have suffered enough, and we don’t...want any more possibilities of bloodshed. In a fraught situation such as we have had in Zimbabwe, anything that is helping towards a move, a transition, from the repression to the possibilities of democracy and freedom, oh, for goodness sake, please let us accept that.[36]

Solomon Islands

In 2009, Tutu assisted in the establishing of the Solomon Islands' Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modelled after the South African body of the same name.[37][38] He spoke at its official launch in Honiara on April 29, emphasising the need for forgiveness in order to build lasting peace.[39]

Israel

Tutu has spoken of the significant role Jews played in the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa, has voiced support for Israel's security concerns, and has spoken against tactics of suicide bombing and incitement to hatred.[40]

Apartheid Reference

He is also an active and prominent proponent of the campaign for divestment from Israel[41], and has likened Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the treatment of Black South Africans under apartheid.[40] Tutu drew this comparison on a Christmas visit to Jerusalem in 1989, when he said that he is a "black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa." [42] He made similar comments in 2002, speaking of "the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about".[43]

In 1988, the American Jewish Committee noted that Tutu was strongly critical of Israel's military and other connections with apartheid-era South Africa, and quoted him as saying that Zionism has "very many parallels with racism", on the grounds that it "excludes people on ethnic or other grounds over which they have no control". While the AJC was critical of some of Tutu's views, it dismissed "insidious rumours" that he had made anti-Semitic statements.[44] The precise wording of Tutu's statement has been reported differently in different sources. A subsequent Toronto Star article indicates that he described Zionism "as a policy that looks like it has many parallels with racism, the effect is the same.[45]

In 2002, when delivering a public lecture in support of divestment, Tutu said "My heart aches. I say why are our memories so short. Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?"[40] He argued that Israel could never live in security by oppressing another people, and continued, "People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust."[40] The latter statement was criticized by some Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League.[46][47] When he edited and reprinted parts of his speech in 2005, Tutu replaced the words "Jewish lobby" with "pro-Israel lobby".[48]

The Holocaust

Tutu preached a message of forgiveness during a 1989 trip to Israel's Yad Vashem museum, saying "Our Lord would say that in the end the positive thing that can come is the spirit of forgiving, not forgetting, but the spirit of saying: God, this happened to us. We pray for those who made it happen, help us to forgive them and help us so that we in our turn will not make others suffer."[49] Some found this statement offensive, with Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center calling it "a gratuitous insult to Jews and victims of Nazism everywhere."[50] Tutu was subjected to racial slurs during this visit to Israel, with vandals writing "Black Nazi pig" on the walls of the St. George's Cathedral in East Jerusalem, where he was staying.[49]

Palestinian Christians

In 2003, Tutu accepted the role as patron of Sabeel International,[51] a Christian liberation theology organization which supports the concerns of the Palestinian Christian community and has actively lobbied the International Christian community for divestment from Israel.[52] In the same year, Archbishop Tutu received an International Advocate for Peace Award from the Cardozo School of Law, an affiliate of Yeshiva University, sparking scattered student protests and condemnations from representatives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Anti-Defamation League.[53] A 2006 opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post newspaper described him as "a friend, albeit a misguided one, of Israel and the Jewish people".[54] The Zionist Organization of America has led a campaign to protest Tutu's appearances at North American campuses.

Gaza

Tutu was appointed as the UN Lead for an investigation into Israel's 2006 bombing of Beit Hanoun bombings [1]. Israel refused Tutu's delegation access so the investigation didn't occur until 2008.

During that fact-finding mission, Tutu called the gaza blockade an abomination [2]and compared Israel's behavior to the military junta in Burma.

US Protests against Tutu

In 2007, the president of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota cancelled a planned speech from Tutu, on the grounds that his presence might offend some members of the local Jewish community.[55] Many faculty members opposed this decision, and with some describing Tutu as the victim of a smear campaign. The group Jewish Voice for Peace led an email campaign calling on St. Thomas to reconsider its decision[56], which the president did and invited Tutu to campus.[57] Tutu declined the re-invitation, speaking instead at the Minneapolis Convention Center at an event hosted by Metro State University.[58]

Dershowitz Comment

In April, 2009, Alan Dershowitz referred to Tutu as a "racist and a bigot," during the Durban Conference because of Tutu's criticism's of Israel's policy and Occupation.[3]

United Nations role

In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims.[59] He was named a member of the UN advisory panel on genocide prevention in 2006.[60]

However, Tutu has also criticised the UN, particularly on the issue of West Papua. Tutu expressed support for the West Papuan independence movement, criticizing the United Nations' role in the takeover of West Papua by Indonesia. Tutu said: "For many years the people of South Africa suffered under the yoke of oppression and apartheid. Many people continue to suffer brutal oppression, where their fundamental dignity as human beings is denied. One such people is the people of West Papua."[61]

Tutu was named to head a United Nations fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, where, in a November 2006 incident the Israel Defense Forces killed 19 civilians after troops wound up a week-long incursion aimed at curbing Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the town.[62] Tutu planned to travel to the Palestinian territory to "assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors and make recommendations on ways and means to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli assaults," according to the president of the UN Human Rights Council, Luis Alfonso De Alba.[63] Israeli officials expressed concern that the report would be biased against Israel. Tutu cancelled the trip in mid-December, saying that Israel had refused to grant him the necessary travel clearance after more than a week of discussions.[64] However, Tutu and British academic Christine Chinkin are now due to visit the Gaza Strip via Egypt and will file a report at the September 2008 session of the Human Rights Council.[65]

Political views

He is a supporter of the magazine New Internationalist, which campaigns for social and environmental justice worldwide.

Against poverty

Before the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005, Tutu called on world leaders to promote free trade with poorer countries. Tutu also called on an end to expensive taxes on anti-AIDS drugs. Tutu said:

"I would hope they would begin to say, 'lets to do something about subsidies'. You ask the so-called-developing world, 'Why can't you people produce more?' - and they produce - and then they find that the markets have barriers that are put down or are clobbered twice over."[66]

Following this summit, the G8 leaders promised to increase aid to developing countries by $48bn a year by 2010. Further, they gave their word of honour that they would do the best they could to achieve universal access to prevention and treatment for the millions and millions of people globally threatened by HIV/AIDS.

Before the 32nd G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany in 2007, Tutu called on the G8 to focus on poverty in the Third World. Following the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, it appeared that world leaders were determined as never before to set and meet specific goals regarding extreme poverty.[67]

Against unilateralism

In January 2003, Tutu attacked British Prime Minister Tony Blair's stance in supporting American President George W. Bush over Iraq. The alliance of Britain and the United States of America led to the outbreak of the Iraq War later that year. Tutu asked why Iraq was being singled out when Europe, India and Pakistan also had weapons of mass destruction. Tutu demanded:

"When does compassion, when does morality, when does caring come in? I just hope that one day that people will realise that peace is a far better path to follow. Many, many of us are deeply saddened to see a great country such as the United States aided and abetted extraordinarily by Britain. I have a great deal of time for your prime minister but I'm shocked to see a powerful country use its power frequently, unilaterally. The United States says you do this to the world, if you don't do it we will do it - that's sad."[68]

In October 2004, Tutu appeared in a play at Off Broadway, New York called Guantanamo - Honor-bound to Defend Freedom. This play was highly critical of the US handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Tutu played Lord Justice Steyn, a judge who questions the legal justification of the detention regime.[69]

In January 2005, Tutu added his voice to the growing dissent over terrorist suspects held at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, referring to detentions without trial as "utterly unacceptable." Tutu compared these detentions to those under Apartheid. Tutu also emphasised that when South Africa had used those methods the country had been condemned, however when powerful countries such as Britain and the United States of America had invoked such power the world was silent and in that silence accepted their methods even though they violated essential human rights. Tutu said:

The rule of law is in order to ensure that those who have power don't use their power arbitrarily and every person retains their human rights until you have proven conclusively that so-and-so is in fact guilty. Whilst we are saying thank you that these have been released, what is happening to those left behind? We in South Africa used to have a dispensation that detained people without trial and the world quite rightly condemned that as unacceptable. Now if it was unacceptable then how come it can be acceptable to Britain and the United States. It is so, so deeply distressing. I am opposed to any arbitrary detention that is happening, even in Britain.[70]

In February 2006, Tutu repeated these statements after a UN report was published which called for the closure of the camp. Tutu stated that the Guantanamo Bay camp was a stain on the character of the United States, while the legislation in Britain which gave a 28 day detention period for terror suspects was "excessive" and "untenable". Tutu pointed out that similar arguments were being made in Britain and the United States which the South African apartheid regime had used. "It is disgraceful and one cannot find strong enough words to condemn what Britain and the United States and some of their allies have accepted," said Tutu. Tutu also attacked Tony Blair's failed attempt to hold terrorist suspects in Britain for up to 90 days without charge. "Ninety days for a South African is an awful deja-vu because we had in South Africa in the bad old days a 90-day detention law," he said. Under apartheid, as at Guantanamo Bay, people were held for "unconscionably long periods" and then released, he said. Tutu stated:

"Are you able to restore to those people the time when their freedom was denied them? If you have evidence for goodness sake produce it in a court of law. People with power have an incredible capacity for wanting to be able to retain that power and don't like scrutiny."[71]

In 2007, Tutu stated that the global "war on terror" could not be won if people were living in desperate conditions. Tutu said that the global disparity between rich and poor people creates instability.

"You can never win a war against terror as long as there are conditions in the world that make people desperate - poverty, disease, ignorance, et cetera. I think people are beginning to realize that you can't have pockets of prosperity in one part of the world and huge deserts of poverty and deprivation and think that you can have a stable and secure world."[72]

Against HIV/AIDS and TB

Tutu has been a tireless campaigner for health and human rights, and has been particularly vocal in support of controlling TB and HIV.[73] He has served as the honorary chairman for the Global AIDS Alliance. In 2003 the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre was founded in Cape Town, while the Desmond Tutu TB Centre was founded in 2003 at Stellenbosch University. Tutu suffered from TB in his youth and has been active in assisting those afflicted, especially as TB and HIV/AIDS deaths have become intrinsically linked in South Africa. “Those of you who work to care for people suffering from AIDS and TB are wiping a tear from God’s eye,” Tutu said.[73]

On 20 April 2005, after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Pope Benedict XVI, Tutu said he was sad that the Roman Catholic Church was unlikely to change its opposition to condoms amidst the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa: "We would have hoped for someone more open to the more recent developments in the world, the whole question of the ministry of women and a more reasonable position with regards to condoms and HIV/AIDS."[74]

In 2007, statistics were released that indicated HIV and AIDS numbers were lower than previously thought in South Africa. However, Tutu named these statistics "cold comfort" as it was unacceptable that 600 people died of AIDS in South Africa every day. Tutu also rebuked the government for wasting time by discussing what caused HIV/AIDS, which particularly attacks Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for their denialist stance.[75]

Church reform

In 2002, Tutu called for a reform of the Anglican Church in regard to how its leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen. The ultimate appointment is made by the British Prime Minister and thus Tutu said that the selection process will only be properly democratic and representative when the link between church and state is broken. In February 2006 Tutu took part in the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. There he manifested his commitment to ecumenism and praised the efforts of Christian churches to promote dialogue to diminish their differences. For Tutu, "a united church is no optional extra."

In the debate about Anglican views of homosexuality he has opposed Christian discrimination against homosexuals while suggesting homosexual church leaders should currently remain celibate. Commenting days after the 5 August 2003 election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay man to be a bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Tutu said, "In our Church here in South Africa, that doesn't make a difference. We just say that at the moment, we believe that they should remain celibate and we don't see what the fuss is about."[76] Tutu has remarked that it is sad the Church is spending time disagreeing on sexual orientation "when we face so many devastating problems – poverty, HIV/AIDS, war and conflict".[77]

Tutu has increased his criticism of conservative attitudes to homosexuality within his own church, equating homophobia with racism. Stating at a conference in Nairobi that he is "deeply disturbed that in the face of some of the most horrendous problems facing Africa, we concentrate on 'what do I do in bed with whom'".[78] In an interview with BBC Radio 4 on 18 November 2007, Tutu accused the church of being obsessed with homosexuality and declared: "If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God."[79]

Gay rights

Tutu has lent his name to the fight against homophobia in Africa and around the world. He stated at the launching of the book 'Sex, Love and Homophobia' that homophobia is a 'crime against humanity' and 'every bit as unjust' as apartheid. He added that: 'We struggled against apartheid in South Africa, supported by people the world over, because black people were being blamed and made to suffer for something we could do nothing about; our very skins...It is the same with sexual orientation. It is a given.'

Women's rights

On 8 March 2009, Desmond Tutu joined the campaign "Africa for women's rights" launched by The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS), Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS), Women's Aid Collective (WACOL), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), Women and Law in South Africa (WLSA) and hundred other African human rights and women's rights organisations. This campaign for the fulfilment of women's human rights, and the end of violence and discrimination against women, aims to generate mass mobilisation and draw maximum attention, in order to increase pressure on African States to ratify the international and regional women's human rights protection instruments, without reservation, and to respect them, in domestic laws and in practice.

Academic role

In 1998, he was appointed as the Robert R Woodruff Visiting Professor at Emory University, Atlanta. He returned to Emory University the following year as the William R Cannon Visiting Distinguished Professor. In 2000, he founded the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation to raise funds for the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town. The following year he launched the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation USA, which is designed to work with universities nationwide to create leadership academies emphasising peace, social justice and reconciliation.

In 2001, the Desmond Tutu Educational Trust, with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, launched the Desmond Tutu Footprints of the Legends Awards which recognises leadership in combating prejudice, human rights, research and poverty eradication. Since 2004, he has been a Visiting Professor at King's College London, although in 2007, he joined 600 college students and sailed around the world with Semester at Sea.[80]

One Young World

Desmond Tutu has signed up to be one of the Counsellors at One Young World a non-profit organisation which hopes to bring together 1500 young global leaders of tomorrow from every country in the world.

Honours

Desmond Tutu at the The Faculty of Protestant Theology in Vienna. Photo by E. Foltinowsky. 2009

On 16 October 1984, Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee cited his "role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa."[81] This was seen as a gesture of support for him and The South African Council of Churches which he led at that time. In 1987 Tutu was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award.[82] It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations.[83] In 1992, he was awarded the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award.

In June 1999, Tutu was invited to give the annual Wilberforce Lecture in Kingston upon Hull, commemorating the life and achievements of the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce. Tutu used the occasion to praise the people of the city for their traditional support of freedom and for standing with the people of South Africa in their fight against apartheid. He was also presented with the freedom of the city.[84]

In 1978 Tutu was awarded a fellowship of King's College London, of which he is an alumnus. He returned to King's in 2004 as Visiting Professor in Post-Conflict Studies. The Students' Union nightclub, Tutu's, is named in his honour.[85]

In 2005, he was awarded the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award in recognition of his outstanding work against hunger, malnutrition and poverty worldwide.

Tutu has been awarded the freedom of the city in cities in Italy, Wales, England and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has received numerous doctorates and fellowships at distinguished universities. He has been named a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur by France, Germany has awarded him the Order of Merit Grand Cross, while he received the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999. He is also the recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize, the King Hussein Prize and the Marion Doenhoff Prize for International Reconciliation and Understanding. In 2008, Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois proclaimed 13 May 'Desmond Tutu Day'. On his visit to Illinois, Tutu was awarded the Lincoln Leadership Prize and unveiled his portrait which will be displayed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield.[86]

In November 2008, Tutu was awarded the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding.

On 8 May 2009, Tutu was the featured speaker during Michigan State University's spring undergraduate convocation. During the commencement, Tutu was bestowed with an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Two days later, he received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[87] The two schools had coincidentally met in the previous month's NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, a detail not missed by Tutu.[88]

Tutu was awarded an honorary degree from Bangor University, Bangor Wales, on June 10 2009. During the ceremony, Tutu thanked the people of Wales for their role in helping end apartheid.

On 12 June 2009 the University of Vienna conferred the degree "Doctor Theologiae honoris causa" on Desmond Tutu. The Faculty of Protestant Theology and Senate based the decision on Tutu's outstanding achievement in developing and establishing what can be called "ubuntu-theology", his manifestation of what became known as "public theology". By integrating the principles of the South African ubuntu philosophy with his theological thinking he made a major contribution beyond classical Liberation Theology.

Southwark Cathedral named two new varieties of rose in honour of Desmond and Leah Tutu at the 2009 RHS Flower Show at Hampton Court Palace. To celebrate the event, the Southwark Cathedral Merbecke Choir gave a concert in the presence of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah at Southwark Cathedral on 11 July 2009.[89][90] The Archbishop joined the choir on stage for its encore - an arrangement of George Gershwin's 'Summertime'.

Media/film appearances

Tutu at the World Economic Forum 2009
  • The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2009)
  • Iconoclasts Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson (2008)
  • I Am Because We Are (2008)
  • For the Bible Tells Me So (2007)
  • Virgin Radio (2007) - Tutu contacted Virgin Radio on 15 October 2007 in the "Who's Calling Christian" phone in where famous people ring in to raise a substantial amount of money for charity.
  • The Foolishness of God: Desmond Tutu and Forgiveness (2007) (post-production)
  • Our Story Our Voice (2007) (completed)
  • 2006 Trumpet Awards (2006) (TV)
  • Nobelity DVD (2006)
  • De skrev historie (1 episode, 2005)
  • The Shot That Shook the World (2005) (TV)
  • The Peace! DVD (2005) (V)
  • The Charlie Rose Show (1 episode, 2005)
  • Out of Africa: Heroes and Icons (2005) (TV)
  • Big Ideas That Changed the World (2005) (mini) TV Series
  • Breakfast with Frost (3 episodes, 2004-2005)
  • Tavis Smiley (1 episode, 2005)
  • The South Bank Show (1 episode, 2005)
  • Wall Street: A Wondering Trip (2004) (TV)
  • The Daily Show (1 episode, 2004)
  • Bonhoeffer (2003)
  • Long Night's Journey Into Day (2000)
  • Epidemic Africa (1999)
  • Cape Divided (1999)
  • A Force More Powerful (1999)
  • Desmond Tutu was referenced in a Father Ted special episode, "A Christmassy Ted":
    • Mrs. Doyle: "Well, I think that Archbishop Tutu is a Protestant man".
    • Father Ted: "Alright, oh great; so a Protestant is better than me!"

Writings

Tutu has contributed to the field of social psychology. His writing appeared in Greater Good Magazine, published by the Greater Good Science Center of the University of California, Berkeley. His contributions include the interpretation of scientific research into the roots of compassion, altruism, and peaceful human relationships. His most recent article with Greater Good magazine is titled: "Why to Forgive", which examines how forgiveness is not only personally rewarding, but also politically necessary in allowing South Africa to have a new beginning. However, Tutu states that forgiveness is not turning a blind eye to wrongs; true reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring healing.

Tutu is the author of seven collections of sermons and other writings:

Tutu has also co authored numerous books:

  • "Bounty in Bondage: Anglican Church in Southern Africa - Essays in Honour of Edward King, Dean of Cape Town" with Frank England, Torguil Paterson, and Torquil Paterson (1989)
  • "Resistance Art in South Africa" with Sue Williamson (1990)
  • The Rainbow People of God with John Allen (1994)
  • "Freedom from Fear: And Other Writings" with Vaclav Havel and Aung San Suu Kyi (1995)
  • "Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu" with Michael J. Battle (1997)
  • "Exploring Forgiveness" with Robert D. Enright and Joanna North (1998)
  • "Love in Chaos: Spiritual Growth and the Search for Peace in Northern Ireland" with Mary McAleese (1999)
  • "Race and Reconciliation in South Africa (Global Encounters: Studies in Comparative Political Theory)" with William Vugt and G. Daan Cloete (2000)
  • "South Africa: A Modern History" with T.R.H. Davenport and Christopher Saunders (2000)
  • "At the Side of Torture Survivors: Treating a Terrible Assault on Human Dignity" with Bahman Nirumand, Sepp Graessner and Norbert Gurris (2001)
  • "Place of Compassion" with Kenneth E. Luckman (2001)
  • "Passion for Peace: Exercising Power Creatively" with Stuart Rees (2002)
  • "Out of Bounds (New Windmills)" with Beverley Naidoo (2003)
  • "Fly, Eagle, Fly!" with Christopher Gregorowski and Niki Daly (2003)
  • "Sex, Love and Homophobia: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Lives" with Amnesty International, Vanessa Baird and Grayson Perry (2004)
  • "Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation" with Gustavo Gutierrez and Marc H. Ellis (2004)
  • "Radical Compassion: The Life and Times of Archbishop Ted Scott" with Hugh McCullum (2004)
  • "Third World Health: Hostage to First World Wealth" with Theodore MacDonald (2005)
  • "Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another and Other Lessons from the Desert Fathers" with Rowan Williams (2005)
  • "Health, Trade and Human Rights" with Mogobe Ramose and Theodore H. MacDonald (2006)
  • "The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa" with Marcus Samuelsson, Heidi Sacko Walters and Gediyon Kifle (2006)
  • "The Gospel According to Judas WMA: By Benjamin Iscariot" with Jeffrey Archer, Frank Moloney (2007)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Tutu to be honoured with Gandhi Peace Award". http://www.mg.co.za/article/2006-10-03-tutu-to-be-honoured-with-gandhi-peace-award. Retrieved on 2008-11-11. 
  2. ^ Miller, Lindsay. "Desmond Tutu - A Man with a Mission". http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/Africa/02/miller/miller.htm. Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 
  3. ^ a b Aarvik, Egil (1984). "Presentation Speech of 1984 Nobel Prize for Peace". The Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1984/presentation-speech.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 
  4. ^ a b Wood, Lawrence (17 October 2006). "Tutu's story". The Christian Century. http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=2441. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  5. ^ "Our Patron - Archbishop Desmond Tutu". Cape Town Child Welfare. http://www.helpkids.org.za/pages.php?id=26. Retrieved on 2008-06-06. 
  6. ^ a b "Trevor Tutu freed from prison after being granted amnesty". SAPA. 28 November 1997. http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/media/1997/9711/s971128s.htm. Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 
  7. ^ "Tutu's son in amnesty bid". Dispatch. 27 September 1997. http://www.dispatch.co.za/1997/09/27/page%209.htm. Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 
  8. ^ "Nontombi Naomi Tutu". Kent State University. http://dept.kent.edu/violence_symposium/naomi_tutu.htm. Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 
  9. ^ "Reverend Mpho Tutu". 2004 Women of Distinction. 2004. http://pages.interlog.com/~saww/2004Mpho.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 
  10. ^ "The Reverend Mpho A. Tutu". Tutu Institute. http://www.tutuinstitute.org/user/Tutu_BIO.htm. Retrieved on 2008-02-02-06-01. 
  11. ^ Prostate Cancer Foundation of South Africa (3 March 2007). Taking the fight against prostate cancer to South Africans. Press release. http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.co.za/A_Aboutus_Media.asp. Retrieved on 2008-04-23. 
  12. ^ Tutu, Desmond (1994). The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution. New York: Doubleday. 
  13. ^ "Tutu calls for church reform". BBC. 10 June 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/2036677.stm. Retrieved on 2008-01-23. 
  14. ^ Carlin, John (12 November 2006). "Former aide John Allen’s authorised biography offers an intimate view of Desmond Tutu". The Observer. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1945580,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  15. ^ London Gazette: no. 54002, p. 5286, 7 April 1995. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
  16. ^ BBC News (1 June 2009): Tutu in Hay appeal for Zimbabwe
  17. ^ a b "Fact Sheet: Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu". Racism. No Way.. 19 January 2006. http://www.racismnoway.com.au/classroom/factsheets/42.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 
  18. ^ "Tutu calls for child registration". BBC. 22 February 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4289393.stm. Retrieved on 2008-01-23. 
  19. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=7081255
  20. ^ a b c "Archbishop Desmond Tutu lambasts African silence on Zimbabwe". USA Today. 2007. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-16-tutu-zimbabwe_N.htm. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  21. ^ Tutu, Mbeki & others (2005). "Controversy: Tutu, Mbeki & the freedom to criticise". Centre for Civil Society. http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?3,28,10,1763. 
  22. ^ a b "Tutu warns of poverty 'powder keg'". BBC. 23 November 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4035809.stm. 
  23. ^ Maclennan, Ben (2 December 2004). "Quotes of the Week". Sapa. http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/quotes.html. 
  24. ^ Carlin, John. "Interview with Tutu". PBS Frontline. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/interviews/tutu.html. Retrieved on 2006-09-07. 
  25. ^ "S Africa is losing its way - Tutu". BBC. 27 September 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5384310.stm. 
  26. ^ "Zuma camp lashes out at 'old' Tutu". Mail & Guardian. 1 September 2006. http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=282735&area=/insight/insight__national/. Retrieved on 2006-09-01. 
  27. ^ "'Please, please stop'". News24. 19 May 2008. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2325358,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-31. 
  28. ^ The Elders (18 July 2007). Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu Announce The Elders. Press release. http://theelders-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/for-immediate-release-july-18-2007.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-06. 
  29. ^ "Tutu denounces rights abuses". News24. 10 December 2007. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/0,,2-11_2236256,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-23. 
  30. ^ "Raw Video: Desmond Tutu On SF Torch Relay". CBS. 8 April 2008. http://cbs5.com/video/?id=32966@kpix.dayport.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-10. 
  31. ^ "San Francisco set for torch relay". BBC. 9 April 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7337925.stm. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. 
  32. ^ "Zimbabwe needs your help, Tutu tells Brown". Daily Telegraph. 19 September 2007. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/19/wtutu119.xml. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  33. ^ "Tutu urges Zimbabwe intervention". BBC. 29 June 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7479696.stm. 
  34. ^ John Allen (10 October 2007). "Working with a rabble-rouser". Times Online. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2631943.ece. Retrieved on 2008-01-22. 
  35. ^ "Desmond Tutu Quotes". South African History Online. 2007. http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/special%20projects/tutu-d/timeline-tutu.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-23. 
  36. ^ a b c "‘Mugabe must step down with dignity’". The Times. 2 April 2008. http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=739329. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  37. ^ "Solomon Islands gets Desmond Tutu truth help", The Australian, April 29, 2009
  38. ^ "Archbishop Tutu to Visit Solomon Islands", Solomon Times, February 4, 2009
  39. ^ "Solomons Truth and Reconciliation Commission launched", Radio New Zealand International, April 29, 2009
  40. ^ a b c d "Apartheid in the Holy Land". The Guardian. 29 April 2002. http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,706911,00.html. Retrieved on 2006-11-28. 
  41. ^ "Israeli apartheid". The Nation (275): 4–5. 2002-06-27. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020715/tutu. Retrieved on 2006-11-28. 
  42. ^ Ruby, Walter (1 February 1989). "Tutu says Israel's policy in territories remind him of SA". Jerusalem Post. 
  43. ^ "Tutu condemns Israeli apartheid". BBC. 29 April 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1957644.stm. Retrieved on 2006-11-28. 
  44. ^ Shimoni, Gideon (1988). "South African Jews and the Apartheid Crisis" (PDF). American Jewish Year Book (American Jewish Committee) 88: 50. http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1988_3_SpecialArticles.pdf. 
  45. ^ Barthos, Gordon (20 December 1989). "Israelis uneasy about Tutu's Yule visit". Toronto Star. 
  46. ^ Anti-Defamation League (2006). ADL Blasts Appointment Of Desmond Tutu As Head Of U.N. Fact Finding Mission To Gaza. Press release. http://www.adl.org/PresRele/UnitedNations_94/4933_94.htm. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  47. ^ Phillips, Melanie (6 May 2002). "Bigotry and a corruption of the truth". Daily Mail. 
  48. ^ Tutu, Desmond (forward) (2005). Michael Prior. ed. Speaking the Truth: Zionism, Israel, and Occupation. Olive Branch Press. p. 12. 
  49. ^ a b "Tutu Urges Jews to Forgive The Nazis". San Francisco Chronicle. 27 December 1989. 
  50. ^ "Tutu assailed". Chicago Sun-Times. 30 December 1989. p. 13. 
  51. ^ "Desmond Tutu lends his name to Sabeel". comeandsee.com. 18 June 2003. http://www.comeandsee.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=464. Retrieved on 2006-12-04. 
  52. ^ "A call for morally responsible investment: A Nonviolent Response to the Occupation" (PDF). Sabeel. April 2005. http://www.sabeel.org/documents/A%20nonviolence%20sabeel%20second%20revision.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-10-03. 
  53. ^ "Tutu Honor Too Too Much?". Jewish Week. http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=7706&print=yes. 
  54. ^ Derfner, Larry (15 October 2006). "Anti-Semite and Jew". Jerusalem Post. p. 15. 
  55. ^ Furst, Randy (4 October 2007). "St. Thomas won't host Tutu". Minneapolis Star Tribune. http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1463394.html. 
  56. ^ Furst, Randy (15 October 2007). "St. Thomas urged to reconsider its decision not to invite Tutu". Minneapolis Star Tribune. http://www.startribune.com/local/11591286.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-07. 
  57. ^ "UST president says he made wrong decision, invites Tutu to campus". University of St. Thomas Bulletin. http://www.stthomas.edu/bulletin/news/200741/Wednesday/Dease10_10_07.cfm. Retrieved on 2007-10-07. 
  58. ^ Mador, Jessica (12 April 2008). "Desmond Tutu avoids politics while talking about peace". Minnesota Public Radio. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/12/tutu2/. Retrieved on 2008-05-06. 
  59. ^ "Amnesty International welcomes the election of a Board of Directors". Amnesty International. 12 September 2003. http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGIOR300072003?open&of=ENG-391. Retrieved on 2007-08-01. 
  60. ^ "Desmond Tutu turns 75". News24. 6 October 2006. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2009103,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-22. 
  61. ^ "Statement by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa". West Papuan Action. 23 February 2004. http://westpapuaaction.buz.org/unreview/. Retrieved on 2008-06-06. 
  62. ^ Slosberg, Jacob (29 November 2006). "Tutu to head UN rights mission to Gaza". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1162378513178. 
  63. ^ Hoffman, Gil; Keinon, Herb (19 December 2006). "Israel may give no-no to Tutu's trip to Beit Hanun". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881856613&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. 
  64. ^ "Desmond Tutu says Israel refused fact-finding mission to Gaza". International Herald Tribune. 11 December 2006. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/11/news/UN_GEN_UN_Israel_Tutu.php. 
  65. ^ "Tutu heads for Gaza Strip". News24. 26 May 2008. http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2328948,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-31. 
  66. ^ "Archbishop Tutu calls for G8 help". BBC. 2005-03-17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4356821.stm. Retrieved on 2008-01-23. 
  67. ^ World Aids Campaign (2006-10-19). Desmond Tutu: Keep your Promises. Press release. http://www.worldaidscampaign.info/index.php/en/media__1/press_releases/desmond_tutu_keep_your_promises. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  68. ^ "Tutu condemns Blair's Iraq stance". BBC. 5 January 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2628607.stm. Retrieved on 2008-01-23. 
  69. ^ "Tutu in anti-Guantanamo theatre". BBC. 2 October 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3709288.stm. Retrieved on 2008-01-23. 
  70. ^ "Tutu calls for Guantanamo release". BBC. 12 January 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4167369.stm. Retrieved on 2008-01-22. 
  71. ^ "Tutu calls for Guantanamo closure". BBC. 17 February 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4723512.stm. Retrieved on 2008-01-22. 
  72. ^ "Tutu: Poverty fueling terror". CNN. 2007-09-16. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/16/talkasia.tutu/. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  73. ^ a b "Archbischop Desmond Tutu urges TB/HIV workers to continue to relieve suffering from dual scourges". Desmond Tutu HIV Centre. 2005-09-28. http://www.tbhiv-create.org/NewsUpdates/archbishop_desmond_tutu.htm. Retrieved on 2008-04-24. 
  74. ^ "Africans hail conservative Pope". BBC News. 2005-04-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4463873.stm. Retrieved on 2006-05-26. 
  75. ^ "Aids stats 'cold comfort'- Tutu". News24. 2007-11-30. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Aids_Focus/0,,2-7-659_2230486,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  76. ^ "Desmond Tutu: gay bishop row is just "fuss"". Gay.com UK. 2006-08-11. http://uk.gay.com/headlines/4846. Retrieved on 2006-05-26. 
  77. ^ "Tutu calls on Anglicans to accept gay bishop". Spero News. 2005-11-14. http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=128&id=2141. Retrieved on 2006-05-26. 
  78. ^ "Tutu stands up for gays". Pink News. 2007-01-19. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-3528.html. 
  79. ^ "Desmond Tutu chides Church for gay stance". BBC. 2007-11-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7100295.stm. 
  80. ^ "Nobel Peace Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Sail with Semester at Sea for Entire Spring Semester". University of Virginia. 2006-09-26. http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=621. Retrieved on 2008-01-05. 
  81. ^ Norwegian Nobel Committee. The Nobel Peace Prize for 1984. Press release. http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1984/press.html. Retrieved on 2006-05-26. 
  82. ^ Gish, Steven (1963). Desmond Tutu: A Biography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 126. http://books.google.co.za/books?id=S6UYpCoGUkgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=1987+Tutu+was+awarded+the+Pacem+in+Terris+Award. Retrieved on 2008-06-06. 
  83. ^ Habitat for Humanity (2007-11-01). Habitat for Humanity Lebanon Chairman to receive prestigious Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award. Press release. http://www.habitat.org/newsroom/2007archive/11_01_2007_HFH_Freedom_Award.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-06-06. 
  84. ^ "1999 Lecture: Archbishop Desmond Tutu". Wilberforce Lecture Trust. http://www.wilberforcelecturetrust.co.uk/index.php/lectures/lecture-detail/1999-lecture-by-archbishop-desmond-tutu/. Retrieved on 2008-06-06. 
  85. ^ King's College London, "Famous People: Desmond Tutu".
  86. ^ Illinois Government News Network (2008-05-13). Gov. Blagojevich Proclaims Today "Desmond Tutu Day" in Illinois. Press release. http://www.illinois.gov/pressreleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=2&RecNum=6830. Retrieved on 2008-06-06. 
  87. ^ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2009-04-24). Tutu, five others to receive honorary degrees at Carolina's May Commencement. Press release. http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/tutu-five-others-to-receive-honorary-degrees-at-carolinas-may-commencement.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-13. 
  88. ^ "Archbishop Emeritus Tutu delivers 2009 commencement address". Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2009-05-10. http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/students/archbishop-emeritus-tutu-delivers-2009-commencement-address.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-13. 
  89. ^ "The Merbecke Choir: I sing of a rose". Southwark Cathedral. 2009-07-11. http://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/worship/calendar-detail.php?c=2009-07-11&d=2009-07-11&id=4255. Retrieved on 2009-06-30. 
  90. ^ "The Merbecke Choir: Hear Us". Southwark Cathedral. 2009-07-11. http://merbecke.org.uk/hearus.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-30. 

Further reading

  • Shirley du Boulay, Tutu: Voice of the Voiceless (Eerdmans, 1988).
  • Michael J. Battle, Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu (Pilgrim Press, 1997).
  • Steven D. Gish, Desmond Tutu: A Biography (Greenwood, 2004).
  • David Hein, "Bishop Tutu's Christology." Cross Currents 34 (1984): 492-99.
  • David Hein, "Religion and Politics in South Africa." Modern Age 31 (1987): 21-30.
  • John Allen, Rabble-Rouser for Peace: The Authorised Biography of Desmond Tutu (Rider Books, 2007).

External links

Preceded by
Philip Welsford Richmond Russell
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
1986-1996
Succeeded by
Njongonkulu Ndungane



 
 
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Bill Moyers (1999 Film)
In Remembrance of Martin (1998 History Film)
Nobelity (2006 Culture & Society Film)

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