desmond tutu

 

tutu

'The conscience of his generation': South African equality activist Desmond Tutu dies at 90

Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Anglican Archbishop, whose bold calls for racial justice helped crush South Africa's brutal apartheid regime, died Sunday in Cape Town. He was 90 years old.

Desmond Tutu mort

Tutu stuck firmly to his nonviolent approach despite the bloody attacks against the black majority population as the white government clung to power in the 1970s and 1980s. He was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for "a unified leadership figure in the nonviolent campaign to solve the problem of apartheid" in his country.

Ten years later, South Africa held its first democratic elections. Tutu celebrated the country's multi-ethnic community, calling it a "rainbow nation" - and warning that "the oppressed of yesterday can easily become the oppressed of today."

Tutu has also campaigned for gay rights and gay marriage, saying, "I will not worship a homophobic God" in 2013.

South African leader, Nelson Mandela, appointed Tutu to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a commission tasked with investigating human rights abuses by pro- and anti-apartheid groups. The primary objective was to promote reconciliation and tolerance between perpetrators and victims of apartheid.

"Without forgiveness, there is no future," Toto said.

Tutu was Johannesburg's first black bishop from 1985 to 1986 before becoming Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 until 1996. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and was hospitalized several times. He and his wife, Leah, lived in a retired community outside Cape Town.

"Desmond Tutu was an unparalleled patriot, a leader of principles and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical vision that faith without works is dead," President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement announcing Tutu's death.

Ramaphosa praised Tutu as a "non-sectarian and inclusive champion" of human rights for all.

The US Embassy in South Africa issued a statement expressing its condolences to the Tutu family. The statement praised Tutu, calling him "a man who spent his life speaking fearlessly from truth to power," calling him "the conscience of his generation."

Former President Bill Clinton, who was in office in 1994, issued a statement Sunday mentioning his "brilliance, eloquence, steadfast determination, good sense of humor, and firm belief in the morals inherent in all people."

Former President Barack Obama described Tutu as "a mentor, friend, and moral compass."

"A cosmic spirit, Archbishop Tutu was rooted in the struggle for liberation and justice in his country, but he was also concerned with injustice everywhere," Obama said in a statement.

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Desmond Tutu Biographie

assets

Desmond Tutu was born in Klerksdorp, in the Transvaal, the second of three children of Zacharia Zelillo Tutu and his wife Alita. Toto's family moved to Johannesburg when Desmond was twelve years old. Her father is a teacher and her mother is a cleaner and cook in a school for the blind.

studies

Desmond Tutu studied in Johannesburg. First he wanted to become a doctor, but such studies cost his family a lot, and he intended to become a teacher, just like his father. From 1951 to 1954, he taught and began teaching in 1954 at Johannesburg Bantu High School. In 1955 he married Numalizu Lia Shinksan, a teacher. They will have four children. But he resigned in 1957, in protest of the poor quality of education given to blacks2.

Then he decided to focus on theology. He was ordained priest of the Anglican Church in 1961 and became chaplain of Fort Hare University. Fort Hare was at the time one of the only quality universities for blacks in South and South Africa; The main current leaders of the country studied there. Desmond Tutu earned a master's degree in theology from King's College London in 1966, then returned to South Africa, where he worked as a professor of theology.

From 1972 to 1975, he returned to England, where he was Deputy Director of the Theological Education Fund (TEF) of the World Council of Churches in Bromley, Kent. He was appointed Dean of the Archdiocese of Johannesburg in 1975, the first black person to hold this position. He became Bishop of Lesotho (1976-1978), then General Secretary of the first black World Council of South Africa (1978-1985).

activism against apartheid

After the 1977 assassination of Steve Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement and co-organizer of the Soweto riots, Toto delivered the sermon at his funeral 3 . He then praised Picot and the Black Consciousness movement, which drew attention to the performative dimension of language rather than merely descriptive, causing blacks to devalue themselves 3, 4 . Toto participates in the secret meetings of the Black Consciousness Movement 5 . Within the TEF, Tutu also participates in the black theology movement and initiated liberation philology from Latin America5.

Over the course of several years of sermons and preaching, he spread a "message of peace and non-violence". He criticizes apartheid as well as blacks who demand revenge. His speeches contributed to the peaceful struggle against African governments 6, and for this peaceful struggle against the apartheid regime, he was awarded the 16 October 1984 and the Nobel Peace Prize 7 . For him, peace between peoples is the only possible way.

Crowned in his new international position 7 September 1986, he was appointed Archbishop of Cape Town, to the Anglican Church in South Africa, becoming the first black to hold this position. This appointment is criticized by his opponents. He then organized protests against apartheid and boycott campaigns, including the coal campaign from South Africa. He also campaigns for co-educational schools, which for him is an essential step in reconciliation in South Africa. He also fights against the regulation of black movement, "traffic laws".

Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

In 1995 Desmond Tutu became Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established by President Nelson Mandela. After three years of investigations and thousands of hearings, he released the commission's findings in 1998. Today this issue is considered one of the pillars of South African reconciliation 8 .

political positions

role in South Africa

He deplores, among other things, the exorbitant amount of salaries of South African MPs, and the arms sales policy, which brings so much money to the new power in South Africa9.

And on South Africa's foreign policy, he denounced his country's silence towards the regime of Robert Mugabe, the president of neighboring Zimbabwe. He also compares Robert Mugabe to a "kind of Frankenstein" 10 .

During the 2009 South African general elections, he refused to lend his support to Jacob Zuma and criticized violations, according to him, of "a democracy under the control of an advanced majority party" 11 . He was appointed in 2005 by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, a member of the Supreme Council of the Alliance of Civilizations.

In August 2011 he proposed that black ministers sell their luxury cars as well as tax whites to benefit from segregation. These statements provoked controversy including condemning the founding of Frederic de Klerk, warning him of a "dangerous idea of ​​racial guilt" and accusing others of siding with the positions of the youth leader's. The African National Congress, Julius Malema, who has sometimes been accused of “racism,” because he proposed, among other things, the expropriation of white farmers’ land without compensation 12, 13 .

International Initiatives

The July 18, 2007, on the initiative of billionaire Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel and Desmond Tutu held in Johannesburg an association of influential leaders from around the world who wish to contribute, "using their experience and wisdom to solve the most important problems on the planet." Nelson Mandela formed the Council of World Elders (elders or wise and universal) in a speech in his office November 89, his birthday 14. Desmond Tutu is the Chairman of the Board and among its founding members are Kofi Annan, Ella Bhatt, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Li Chau Shing, Mary Robinson, Muhammad Yunus 15.

In 2008, Tutu supported controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright, a figure in black liberation theology who had endorsed presidential candidate Barack Obama, before severing ties with Wright. But Tutu himself moved away from liberation theology, defining an ethics that transcends liberation theology 17 . Regarding Bright, he thus declares that the latter said without frills “what almost any African American would like to say,” that is, “race is a central issue,” and he also called for a “reconciliation forum” in the United States 18 .

And often joined other peace prize Noble and enters procedures to support Aung San Suu Kyi, the 14th Dalai Lama October . In March 2009, he was joined by more than 40 celebrities and 10,000 signatories in a letter to thecommunity.com urging Chinese officials to "stop naming, blaming and verbally abusing the Dalai Lama," and appealing to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet and submit a report. To the international community 19, 20 .

Desmond Tutu is a member of Peace Jam, an honorary member of Budapest 21 Club, and a member of The Elders World, retired former leaders who seek to contribute to peaceful solutions to world problems. In 2012, he refused to participate in a conference in South Africa to which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was invited: “The immoral decision of the United States and Great Britain to invade Iraq in 2003, based on the lie of this country. More destabilizing and polarizing weapons of mass destruction in the world than any other Another conflict in history," explains Desmond Tutu who called at the time, in 2003, Condoleezza Rice, George Bush's security advisor, a few days before the outbreak of the war, to demand that they give more time to the inspectors responsible for finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. "By the criteria we must decide that Robert Mugabe [President of Zimbabwe, editor's note] must appear before international justice, but Tony Blair must participate in the circle of the conference, and that bin Laden must be assassinated, but Iraq must also be invaded, Not because it possessed weapons of mass destruction, as Blair, Bush's number one supporter, admitted, but to get rid of Saddam Hussein? Conclusion: "Why had I had no choice but to reject Tony Blair, I could not sit with someone who justified the invasion of Iraq with a lie. The Observer from September 2, 2012 to the interview that Desmond Tutu made these statements.

In July 2010, he announced his upcoming retirement from public life to devote more time to his family.

Moreover, in July 2007, he was among the first to respond to the “Oxfam Ambassadors” program launched by the NGO to increase its popularity and improve its work22.

Opposition to homophobia

Desmond Tutu is publicly committed to fighting homophobia, having compared homophobia to racism during apartheid in South Africa 24 . He declared in 2013 that he was "as dedicated to this campaign [against homophobia] as he was during the campaign against apartheid 24". He also said that he could not worship a homophobic God, and that he would rather go to Hell than to be homophobic in Heaven 25 .

In February 2014, he protested Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's ratification of a law penalizing same-sex relations in that country which he compared to the Nuremberg (Nazi Germany) and apartheid laws26.

In June 2016, in the Netherlands, he blessed the marriage of his daughter, Anglican priest Mphoo Andrea Tutu, to another woman, Marceline van Voorth 27.

At the end of life and assisted suicide

In 2016, at the age of 86, he changed one of the Christian Church's most sacred doctrines, declaring at a forum that he supported the untreatable and dying who could decide for themselves when to go. , in dignity 28, 29.

Climate change

The 10 April 2014, published in the Guardian 30 articles: "To preserve the climate, fossil fuel companies must be boycotted" 31 .

Meetings with the Dalai Lama

Long-time friend Desmond Tutu met the 14th Dalai Lama in 2004 at a conference organized by Victor Chan in Vancouver, on the theme of Peace and Reconciliation 32, 33 .

Due to the lack of a visa, the Dalai Lama was unable to attend the celebrations for Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday in October 2011. The South African courts declared the delay in the decision to issue this visa illegal. Desmond Tutu visited the Dalai Lama on February 10, 2012 at his residence in Dharamsala, India34.

Desmond Tutu declares “to thank God for creating the Dalai Lama,” and justifies his association with this, explaining that “God is not a Christian,” according to him (35).

In 2014, Pope Francis invited him to meet the Dalai Lama, but after he declined, he said he was "very sad and upset"36.

In 2017, the Dalai Lama couldn't go to her birthday, but it's for Desmond Tutu in a video he describes as priceless in this turbulent world37.

death

Desmond Tutu died on December 26, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa, at the age of 90. President Cyril Ramaphosa hails an "unparalleled patriot", while the Nelson Mandela Foundation pays tribute to the disappearance of a "thinker, leader and patron"38.

Immediately after the public announcement of his death, Queen Elizabeth II, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Emmanuel Macron, Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama and many other heads of state and other public figures and senior politicians took a note on Sunday in memory of the 39th Archbishop of South Africa, 40, 41.

differences

Accusations of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism

Main articles: Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism.

Desmond Tutu repeatedly made statements that were considered "racist" and offensive to the Jewish people 42 . Realizing that he had often been accused of anti-Semitism, he replied that it would take "luck" to prove it and that "his dentist is Dr. Cohen"43 .

He downplayed the suffering suffered by the victims of the Nazi genocide by declaring that the gas chambers were made for a "cleaner death" than the crimes of apartheid, by complaining about the "monopoly of the Holocaust" as well as by asking the victims "a Nazi amnesty for the Holocaust"44. Statements deemed by the Simon-Wiesenthal Center as “insults to Jews and victims of the Nazis” 45. He also said that Jews “believe that they are the preserve of God” and “fought” and “resisted” God 46.

In 1987, he threatened to "punish South African Jews" if Israel traded with the apartheid regime. In 1989, Yad Vashem memorialized the genocide of six million Jews, Desmond Tutu prays for those responsible for the genocide47.

Desmond Tutu [when?] acknowledges the contribution of Jews to the struggle against apartheid: "The Jewish people were the important support in our fight against apartheid" and acknowledges that Israel has the right to live in peace within its borders. But he also declares that Israel will never enjoy real security and security because it is persecuting another people. That is why he is fighting for the establishment of a Palestinian state. In 2002, he sparked controversy by describing the situation in the Holy Land as "apartheid" and with his statement: "It reminds me a lot of what happened to us black people in South Africa"48. He also on one occasion compared the "system" of the Temple in Jerusalem to racial discrimination; Then he declared that he did not understand how the Jewish people, who had suffered so much, could cause the Palestinians to suffer in the same way. He complains that "criticizing Israel deserves the accusation of anti-Semitism", "as if the Palestinians are not Semites." He describes Jewish nationalism as "very much parallel to racism"49, statements condemned by the Anti-Defamation League50. accusing Israeli leaders along with Yasser Arafat and Hamas of "terrorism" 51 and war crimes, while comparing the state of Israel to totalitarian regimes (including Nazi Germany and South Africa under apartheid), "very powerful regimes", Desmond Tutu says he supports a "boycott of Israeli Jewish academics and merchants". He also accuses what he calls "the Jewish lobby", accusing it of "intimidating Americans into admitting what is evil, [that it is] evil". Because the Jewish lobby is very powerful.” 43 He accuses the Jews of “arrogance and arrogance of power because the Jews are a powerful lobby in this country.” He also calls for a boycott of Israel 52, 53 and supports the BDS organization 54.

In 2009, academic Alan Dershowitz accused Desmond Tutu of "racism and bigotry". He is once again accused of anti-Semitism after declaring in the Tampa Bay Times that Jews "should be judged by standards different from other peoples"55.

On March 30 (May RS) 2012, Desmond Tutu participated in a march organized from the Palestinian Territories to Jerusalem to protest and “non-violent resistance” against the presence of the Jewish population in Jerusalem, which he described as “Judaization”56.

In 2014, in the South African Jewish Report, Desmond Tutu was compared to Adolf Hitler and accused of wanting to "kill Jews" 57 .

Reviews

Desmond Tutu with Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Henry Bellingham (London, January 10, 2011).

After criticizing Jacob Zuma, the latter accuses him of "double standards" and selective amnesia. The South African Student Council condemns his actions and calls him an "outrageous person" 58 .

Tutu has also been criticized for refusing to take part in an event with Tony Blair, believing that the latter and George W. Bush should be tried at the International Court of Justice for "destabilizing and somewhat polarizing the world. No one else in history has ever struggled with the specter of Syria and Iran before us." The question It is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad, or how many of his people he massacred.”59 He concluded by saying that the simple count of casualties recorded during and after the Iraq War largely justifies their arrest 60.

In December 2013, having not received any official accreditation, it is believed that he will miss Nelson Mandela's funeral 61. He replied, "If my office is informed or I'm welcome, I won't miss him to the world." It must be said that Desmond Tutu, 82, regularly criticizes the excesses of President Jacob Zuma's government, particularly corruption scandals and failure to reduce inequality. In 2013, he confirmed that he would no longer vote for the African National Congress (ANC), the anti-apartheid party in power since the advent of democracy in 1994. However, it will eventually be present 62 .

In 2014, the South African Christian Democratic Party (CDP) opposed Desmond Tutu's positions, criticizing him for his hypocrisy and calling him a "son of Satan" 63 .

the differences

decoration

Ord.GoodHope-ribbon.gif Grand Cross of the Order of Good Hope (South Africa)

 Merited Service Medal of South Africa (en)

GER Bundesverdienstkreuz 7 Grosskreuz.svgGrand Cross for Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Presidential Medal of Freedom (tape). png Presidential Medal of Freedom (USA)

Legion Honor GO ribbon.svg Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor (France)

Jamaica Medal. gif Jamaican First Class Medal

Order of the Orange-Nassau Ribbon - Commander.svg, Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands)

PAN Order of Vasco Nunez de Balboa - Grand Cross BAR.png

Fellows of Honor Ribbon.gif Knight of the Fellows of Honor (UK)

the price

1984: Nobel Peace Prize.

1997: Planetary Awareness Award awarded by the Budapest Club. Desmond Tutu has been recognized for his role in overcoming apartheid in South Africa, and for his commitment to world peace and interfaith dialogue 64 .

2010: FIFA President Award.

2012: UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights 65 .

April 2013: Templeton Prize, worth 1.3 million Euros, for his work for "Love and Tolerance" 66 .

2014: Catalonia International Prize.

Honours

1986, trumpeter Miles Davis honors M gr Tutu by dedicating Tutu, her last studio album before. It is the first track that gives its title to the album.

honorary doctorate

Desmond Tutu receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna.

Received more than one hundred honorary doctorate degrees:

Third University of Strasbourg (21 July 1988, France) 67France flag

University of Friborg (1999, Switzerland) 68 Swiss flag

University of Sydney (November 26, 1999, Australia) 69Australian flag

University of Ghent (March 18, 2005, Belgium) 70 flag of Belgium

University of Geneva (2009, Switzerland) 71 flag of Switzerland

Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (October 2011, Brazil) 72 Flag of Brazil

St John's University of York Law (2012, UK) 73 UK Flag

University of Groningen (September 24, 2012, Netherlands) 74 Flag of the Netherlands

Sciences Po (September 23, 2013, France) 75Flag of France

Columbia University (United States) Flag of the United States

Harvard University (United States) Flag of the United States

University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) United Kingdom flag

University of Tromsø (Norway) Flag of Norway

University of Warsaw (Poland) flag of Poland

University of Vienna (Austria) Flag of Austria

University of Alberta (Canada) Flag of Canada

Publications

(en) Michael Jesse Battle (PREF. Desmond Tutu), Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu, Pilgrim Press, 2009.

(Arabic) Essays on Leadership (with Boutros Boutros-Ghali, George HW Bush, Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev), Washington, Carnegie Committee on Preventing Deadly Conflict, 1998

Believe the inspiration of Ubuntu and the words of Desmond Tutu, Acropolis, 2007.

Prisoner of Hope 1983.

There is no future without forgiveness 2000

A story from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

God Made a Dream (2008), Novalis Editions.

The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Abrassem, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, Flamarion, 2016 (ISBN 2081393964 and 9782081393967).