Desmond Tutu

Dr. Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African activist and Christian cleric who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. He 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).

Archbishop Tutu has been active in the defense of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. He has campaigned to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, homophobia, transphobia, poverty and racism. Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986, the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2005, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Tutu has also compiled several books of his speeches and sayings.

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.

His son, Trevor Tutu, caused a bomb scare 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. 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. 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.

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. Desmond Tutu's other daughter, Mpho Tutu, has also followed in her father's footsteps and in 2004 was ordained an Episcopal priest by her father. 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.

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.

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.

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.

In 1994, Tutu said that he approved of artificial contraception and that abortion was acceptable in a number of situations, such as incest and rape. He specifically welcomed the aims of the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo.

Writings

Tutu had 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:

Crying in the Wilderness, Eerdmans, 1982. ISBN 978-0-8028-0270-5

Hope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches, Skotaville, 1983. ISBN 978-0-620-06776-8

The Words of Desmond Tutu, Newmarket, 1989. ISBN 978-1-55704-719-9

Worshipping Church in Africa, Duke University Press, 1995. ASIN B000K5WB02

The Essential Desmond Tutu, David Phillips Publishers, 1997. ISBN 978-0-86486-346-1

No Future without Forgiveness, Doubleday, 1999. ISBN 978-0-385-49689-6

An African Prayerbook, Doubleday, 2000. ISBN 978-0-385-47730-7

God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time, Doubleday, 2004. ISBN 978-0-385-47784-0

The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution, Doubleday, 1994. ISBN 978-0-385-47546-4

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 Václav 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)

"Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All The Difference" with Mpho Tutu (2010)

Honours

On 16 October 1984, the then Bishop 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. 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. 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. 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.

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.

In 2006 Tutu was named an honorary patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin for his tremendous contributions to peace and discourse.

The freedom of the city award has been conferred on Tutu 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, and 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.

In October 2008, Tutu received the Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan in recognition of his life-long work in defense of human rights and dignity.

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, an honorary doctor of humane letters degree was bestowed on Tutu. Two days later, he received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The two schools had coincidentally met in the previous month's NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, a detail not missed by Tutu.

Tutu was awarded an honorary degree from Bangor University, Bangor, Wales, on 10 June 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. The Archbishop joined the choir on stage for its encore – an arrangement of George Gershwin's 'Summertime.