Meet
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
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Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was head of South Africa’s
Truth and Reconciliation Commission formed to help his country move on from
its painful legacy of racial separatism.
For a Biography of Archbishop Desmond Tutu CLICK HERE
John Hope Franklin on Archbishop Tutu:
"Well, I was certain that I would have a lot to learn from Archbishop
Tutu. I was very curious about the experiences that South Africa had had in
apartheid and the way in which it was combated upon the emergence of Nelson
Mandela, and I was particularly anxious to hear what he would have to say
about his experiences as the chairman of the Commission on Race and Reconciliation."
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"I wanted to compare notes. I wanted to see how much they had learned
from us about how to discriminate and segregate, and I wanted to learn, too,
from the commission, of what it had done to arrive to the conclusions that
they had arrived at."
"Of
course I had read the summaries of the report. Of course I followed the, the
statements that were made from time to time before the commission by South
Africans who were, who were confessing, or who were objecting. But I wanted
to hear from him, and I wanted to, I wanted to see what healing processes
he instituted, particularly being a man of the cloth, having the capacity
to forgive, that some of--some others might not have."
The following is an excerpt from a conversation between Dr. Franklin and Archbishop
Tutu on being held hostage by the past.
DR. FRANKLIN: But the question of, of the past, as a historian I have problems
with shutting out the past, and closing it down at a certain point. You suggested
that in your country, you hope that the present and future would not be held
hostage by the past.
How does one declare that this door to the past is now shut? It hovers over
the present in such a profound and powerful way--
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ARCHBISHOP
TUTU: Yes; yes.
DR. FRANKLIN: --that I don't know how you can close it out, as it were.
ARCHBISHOP TUTU: There is in fact a, a clear way in which that can happen.
Imagine if we had not dealt with our past in the way that we did, exposing
the gross violations of human rights that happened. That past would then be
able to hold us hostage in so far as people could, when it was convenient
for them, make an expose. Do you know this man who is today our prime minister?
This and this is what he did.
Whereas, in our country, now, we will be able to say, yes, they acknowledged
it, they applied for amnesty. It was horrendous acts, but we have accepted
that
For
the complete transcripts of Dr. Franklin’s and Archbishop Tutu’s
conversations on Goree CLICK HERE
Other Tutu PBS links
Bishop Tutu’s 1999 interview on NewsHour
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/july-dec99/tutu_10-6.html
Bishop Tutu talks about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission on Frontline
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/etc/script.html
Bishop Tutu’s 1999 interview on Frontline
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/etc/script.html
