Desmond Tutu is the politician-preacherman. He is a peacemaker who is not
afraid to throw verbal hand grenades, a rock’n’roll rabble-rouser, an elder
statesman who is constantly reduced to giggles.
During the apartheid era he was hailed as a messiah of Africa, touring the
townships in his cassock and crucifix while the ANC leaders were in jail.
Now he is the world’s voice of conscience, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
who dispenses advice to America and Africa alike. Before the war in Iraq, he
tells us, he telephoned the White House to try to stop the invasion. As
leader of the group of Elders — a select group of senior statesmen — he has
worked behind the scenes in Zimbabwe and tried to secure the release of Aung
San Suu Kyi.
As Barack Obama visited Africa at the end of the G8 summit yesterday, he said
the election of America’s first black President had given “people of colour”
a new spring in their step. “It is, as some have said, a Mandela moment.”
Archbishop Tutu is Nelson Mandela’s spiritual alter ego, although he says of
his friend: “He does wear strange shirts”. Like the Dalai Lama, another
close friend, the Archbishop manages to flit between charity and celebrity —
hanging out with Madonna and Sir Richard Branson as well as orphans and
refugees. “I like her,” he says of the pop star. “I think she’s genuine —
why shouldn’t she adopt babies from Africa?” Superstars are just as admiring
of him — he filmed a video message for U2’s latest world tour at the
invitation of Bono.
The Archbishop, 77, manages his own Facebook page (John Hurt and Kofi Annan
are among his friends) and is an avid emailer, signing off “Arch” although
he has not yet learnt to Twitter. “I’m not smart enough,” he laughs.
He is not afraid to take on the vested interests of aid agencies, presidents
or prime ministers. Voters, he says, “must keep leaders to the commitments”
on tackling poverty that they made at the G8.”
President Obama, with his Kenyan roots, will, he believes, have more impact on
Africa than his predecessors. “He can be more forthright with African
leaders without being accused of being a neocolonialist . . . He has given
people the world over a new sense of hope. But he is too bright to have a
bloated view of himself. He has a smart wife who helps to keep his feet
firmly on the ground.”
The West should in general, he warns, beware of preaching about corrupt
African dictators. “You could say the same about Europe. You get a Churchill
and then there’s a long wait . . . What gives me a great deal of hope for
Africa is looking at the history of Europe. Very recently you had two world
wars, you had the Holocaust, you had dictatorships in Spain, Portugal and
Greece. There was a time when Italy was changing governments like you change
pairs of socks. There was the Soviet Union, Stalin’s gulags. You forget that
you really made a mess of things. It was a Western country that was the
first and only country to use weapons of mass destruction. [Africa] is not
on a level with Western people.
“I can be nice and say there’s hope for us. When I’m a little angry I say ‘For
goodness sake you need a fairly large dose of modesty. You ought to be
hiding your heads for the things you have actually done’.”
Archbishop Tutu wants a new generation to join in his campaign for peace.
“Nobel laureates don’t come ready formed from heaven,” he says. “A kid asked
me a few years ago, ‘What do you do to get the prize?’ I said, ‘It’s very
easy, you just need three things — you must have an easy name, like Tutu for
example, you must have a large nose and you must have sexy legs’. I was
wearing shorts so I flashed mine at him. The point is that anyone can do
it.”
There are, he says, no insurmountable challenges. “We see a great deal of evil
and we ought not to pretend that it’s other than it is — stark and awful and
ugly. But it isn’t the whole picture. There are very many good things that
happen in the world.”
The international wave of repulsion against apartheid in the 1980s changed
Africa for ever — but he admits he is disappointed what is taking place in
parts of the continent now. “There are terrible things that we never thought
would happen going on in South Africa,” he says.
“Remember that we are only fifteen years old. If everyone was saying ‘This is
what we want to do’ then there would be greater cause for worry. But there
are people who are saying, ‘This is a betrayal of our legacy’.”
Archbishop Tutu won’t write off Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s new Prime Minister,
just yet. “He won a resounding victory in a fair election with a nearly 80
per cent turnout, let’s give him a chance.”
The world should also in his view wait to see how the Government of national
unity in Zimbabwe works out. He can’t understand why Robert Mugabe — who
once called him an “angry, evil and embittered little bishop” — went so
wrong.
“We used to show off with Zimbabwe. We showed off with President Mugabe
because he is so well spoken and he’s a natty dresser. After his first
victory against Ian Smith he was so magnanimous.”
Archbishop Tutu is disheartened by the way in which African countries have
squandered their natural resources. “It’s awful to have Zimbabwe become as
it has become. It’s awful to see so many dictators in Africa who have messed
up. When you contrast what Qatar does with its oil revenue with what Nigeria
does I feel very deeply saddened.” He warns, though, that aid is often a
double-edged sword. “The poor people that I know are not poor people who
want handouts. Most poor people are very proud — what they want is a hand up
not a handout. Some of it is done in the wrong way, there are things that
are being done well and there are some that is not being done well.”
Does he think the continent should be sorting out its own problems with the
help of the African Union? “There is a plethora of conflicts. We have
already seen the role that African peace makers have had. But in many
instances — take the Aids pandemic — there are things that we can get from
yourselves. Most of the time Bush was a very bad President. One of his
legacies is the fund set up to deal with malaria and HIV/Aids. We rely a
great deal on the resources that you have. The African Union should be able
to ask for help and not feel that that’s undermining.”
The man who chaired South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission says
that words are often worth more than money. “ You would have thought that
most of the people who came \ were hoping for material gains. It was nothing
of the sort — people wanted to to tell their story. A young guy who had been
involved in police action which left him blind came to the Commission and
told his story and when he had finished he was still blind but a broad smile
broke over his face and he said, ‘You have given me back my eyes’.”
Archbishop Tutu believes there are worrying parallels between the Middle East
and apartheid South Africa. “The things I have seen in Israel with the
treatment of the Palestinians reminds me of our own experience at home — the
checkpoints where you have arrogant officers. There are things there that
didn’t happen in South Africa. We didn’t have collective punishment where
homes were destroyed. This is something that has to be resolved. You can’t
have people being treated as they are. It doesn’t improve Israel’s security.
The Gazans are dehumanised.” The protests in Iran, he says, showed that
people have a natural desire for democracy. “I would tell people that you
are meant for freedom, it’s something that each one of us knows. ”
He was horrified by the election of two British National Party MEPs but says:
“It’s part of the price you pay for being a free society . . . When you have
a strain of instability as a result of the economic downturn plus all the
wonderful things that have been happening in Westminster, then those people
who pretend that they can give fairly straight forward answers to
complicated questions tend to draw some people. Everyone looks for
scapegoats. This is what Hitler did when the economy in Germany wasn’t going
OK — they didn’t look for the actual reasons, they said it’s the Jews.
What’s wonderful is that so many feel outraged that parties like the BNP can
garner enough votes to be elected.”
Britain, he says, is far more tolerant than it used to be. “When I came to
Birmingham twenty years ago there were people who were upset that a school
could be named after Nelson Mandela whom they castigated as a terrorist. How
wrong can you be? Now there is a black archbishop.”
Archbishop Tutu is probably the most famous archbishop in the world.Is he ever
going to retire? “I’ve retired, I’ve retired, I’ve retired, I’ve retired,”
he says, with one of his uproarious cackles, “but don’t say that in front of
my wife, please.”
CV
Born October 7, 1931
Background His father was a teacher and his mother a cleaner and cook
at a school for the blind in Johannesburg. Here he met Trevor Huddleston, a
parish priest in the township. “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.”
Family He married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane, a teacher he met while at
college. They have four children: Trevor Thamsanqa, Theresa Thandeka, Naomi
Nontombi and Mpho Andrea.
Career Having been ordained an Anglican priest, he led the campaign
against apartheid with Nelson Mandela. In 1984 he became the second South
African to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He also received the Gandhi Peace
Prize in 2005. He was the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of
Cape Town, and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa. He
chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and is chairman of The
Elders. Mandela said of Tutu: “He is sometimes strident, often tender, never
afraid and seldom without humour.”
Quick fire
Madonna or Mozart? Both
Old Testament or New Testament? Both
Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King? Nelson Mandela. I suppose he is
my friend even if he wears strange shirts
Beach or bush? Beach
America or Europe? I’d better whisper it but America — I love Disney
World.
