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Mrs Nomalizo Leah Tutu celebrates her 91st birthday in Cape Town today. Mrs Tutu was married to Archbishop Desmond Tutu for 66 years. Trained as a teacher and a nurse, she was an activist in her own right, establishing South Africa’s first trade union for domestic workers while employed by the South African Institute  for Race Relations.

In this historic photograph, Mrs Tutu sits next to her younger brother, surrounded by grandchildren, grand nephews, and nieces. #Generations

Remembering Desmond Mpilo Tutu: 7 October 1931 – 26 December 2021

Statement from Dr Mamphela Ramphele, chair of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust, and Mr Niclas Kjellstrom-Matseke, chair of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation…

7 October 2024

WORLD OF WAR AND DIVISION CRYING OUT FOR A NEW GENERATION OF TOLERANCE 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who would have turned 93-years-old today, was among the last of a generation of tolerance that emerged after World War Two to fight for a more just and equitable world. 

A generation that understood the necessity to establish a world body to gird the rights of all people regardless of colour, culture or creed.

A generation that dared to dream it was possible to change the course of history after centuries of conquest, seizure, and domination by those in power on the day.

A generation with the courage of its convictions to prosecute the struggles for equal rights and dignity, without regard for identity, in the US, in South Africa, in Myanmar, in South and Central America, in Australasia…

Most of this cohort of great leaders are gone, spared the agony of witnessing the global regression to intolerance, identity politics, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and survival of the militarily-and-economically-fittest.

On this day, a year ago, Hamas insurgents invaded Israel, killing nearly 1200 people, and taking more than 200 hostage. Israel’s genocidal vengeance led to 40 000 Palestinian deaths in the 10 months to August 2024, according to the United Nations, and the almost total annihilation of infrastructure in Gaza.

Most of the dead were non-combatants, and a large proportion were children and women. 

Now the hatred is rippling outward, threatening to engulf the region – and infect the world. 

We mark this anniversary of the birth of our beloved late South African Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, by reminding ourselves that he was a man of peace with an extraordinary grasp of human affairs and the human condition.

Tutu understood with great clarity that Israel/Palestine was no ordinary patch of land. Due to its history, and centrality to Christians, Muslims and Jews, events there weighed particularly heavily on the world, he said.

The development of technology has shrunk the world into what some call a “global village”, but people in the village have yet to develop the skills to live in a sustainable community. They continue to regard each other as competitors, rather than collaborators.

Archbishop Tutu said all human beings were sisters and brothers in one human family, which he called God’s family. He supported the struggle for justice in Palestine, as he supported the struggle for justice in South Africa, because he viewed the oppression of one group of people by another as a sin. A free and equal Palestine would benefit all of humanity, not least the people of Israel, he said.

The biggest tragedy that has unfolded in Gaza, broadcast live across the world, is that nobody has stopped it. 

We call on all nations to re-avow their support for the United Nations, and its democratization after more than 75 years of veto domination by a handful of powerful countries. Its present dysfunctionality places humanity at risk. 

And we call on those who are presently in positions of power to remember their shared humanity, and tone down the rhetoric of identity politics. They must be held to account because they are teaching our children to hate one another. 

If occupants of the global village don’t quickly find tolerable means to resolve their differences and build common purpose, what chance do we have of resolving the greatest existential threat of our time: Climate change brought on by greed and consumptiveness?

Ends…

Distributed for Dr Ramphele and Mr Kjellstrom-Matseke from Desmond & Leah Tutu House, Cape Town, South Africa. For more information: Benny Gool (082 5566 556) / Roger Friedman (079 8966 899). 

Mayor of Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis has kicked off  the legal process to re-name an open piece of land opposite the Tutu home in Milnerton, Cape Town, Desmond Tutu Memorial Park.

The proposed re-naming, development of a children’s play park and amphitheatre, and indigenous landscaping, was initiated by members of the Milnerton community who approached their councillor with the concept soon after the Archbishop’s passing in December 2021.

At a small ceremony on the property to announce the project this week, at which Mrs Leah Tutu was the guest of honour, Hill-Lewis said the city intended to create a vibrant and beautiful space, embedded with the Tutu’s values.

Welcoming the project, chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu Intellectual Property Trust, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, spoke of the delicious irony of a suburb, named after colonial governor Lord Milner, who believed in the superiority of the British race, opening its heart to Archbishop Tutu, who fought against racial superiority and injustice all his life.

In recognition of his lifelong work for justice and one human family, the Archbishop received significant awards and honours from governments and organisations around the world. Each of them was special, Dr Ramphele said, but to be honoured by his neighbours and local community was extra special.

“It is an authentic local tribute of love and respect for the Tutu family from the community they have been part of for nearly 30 years. The only condition the Trust imposed on the project was that it be thrifty. The Arch would not havewanted the City to incur a great expense,”  Dr Ramphele said.

She thanked the mayor and his team for accepting the Milnerton Ratepayers’ Association’s proposal, developing it, and bringing the project to life.

The proposed project is now out for public comment.

At a press briefing calling for the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza, Inkosi Zwelivelile Mandela called on South Africa’s government to ban Israel’s national airline from flying to Johannesburg, to close the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria, and stop supplying coal to Israel.

Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers, called on the South African government to reinstate Naledi Pandor to her position as Minister of International Relations.

Speaking from Italy, Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatrician and Doctors Without Borders’ spokesperson on Gaza, accused Israel of the systemic targeting of hospitals and health care workers, saying doctors released from Israeli detention related being tortured, sexually assaulted and told that they are “the scum of the earth”.

Speaking from Germany, Reverend Mpho Tutu-Van Furth said that her father had battled serious illnesses throughout his life, and lived to the age of 90 because of the care he received from doctors. Had Archbishop Tutu been born in Gaza, he would unlikely have survived to adulthood, she said.

Former member of South Africa’s liberation movement and retired Constitutional Court Judge, Albie Sachs, said he was proud to be a member of the Jewish faith. “If anyone has a particular hatred of oppression it should be the Jews,” he said. He said South Africa’s lesson of forging peace depended on enemies speaking to each other, and that this applied to Israel and Palestine, too.

In a letter read out at the event, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba said: “Israel and Hamas must accept the (UN) resolution (for a ceasefire) immediately and unconditionally, failing which all who supply them with weapons must apply a comprehensive arms embargo against them.

“The future of Israel and the security of its people lie only through achieving justice for the Palestinians.”

The briefing was moderated by Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust, and Ms Janet Jobson, CEO of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

Mrs Leah Tutu casts a special vote at home in Cape Town today (Monday 27 May 2024) ahead of the seventh general election of the post-apartheid era on Wednesday. Mrs Tutu was denied the right to vote in the country of her birth until she was in her 60s.

Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba unveiled the new window at St George’s Cathedral on 21 April 2024 during a farewell service for Dean Michael Weeder, who is retiring. The service was attended by Mrs Leah Tutu and several members of the extended family. Archbishop Tutu’s ashes were interred in the cathedral on New Year’s Day in 2022. The new window was designed by Cape Town-based stained glass artist Anika van der Merwe.

Address by Dr Mamphela Ramphele at the ceremony on 20 February 2024 to rename a historic building in Cape Town, Desmond & Leah Tutu House.

Desmond & Leah Tutu House will forefront Arch’s healing ministry

There was a thought-provoking article in City Press this week reflecting on the Netherlands’ declaration of a “Slavery Memorial Year” to mark the 150^th anniversary of abolition.

The Dutch were leading protagonists in the slave trade for 300 years. They shipped more than 600 000 Africans to the Americas, and enslaved up to a million Asians.

Between 1652 and 1807, the Dutch East India Company brought 60 000 slaves to South Africa. Some of them were put to work right here, constructing what was to become known as the Old Granary.

The gist of the City Press article was that while the Netherlands’ declaration of a Slavery Memorial Year prompted heated national debate in former Dutch colonies in the Americas, and in Indonesia, South Africa’s response had been relatively muted.

The author speculates this could be because the horrors of the slave trade were overtaken in our national consciousness by the more recent horrors of apartheid.

One of the biggest problems we’ve been brewing over the 30 years of our democracy is under-acknowledging our past. This has profoundly negatively impacted the national healing process.

While the country transitioned, politically, from apartheid to democracy, many people continue to lead the same lives, continue to live on the margins – now, with diminishing hope.

We talk about empowering black people and women, but the face of poverty remains that of a black woman – while incidents of gender-based violence go through the roof.

I don’t need to list the inequalities and continuing injustices many citizens live with today…

The bottom line is that we can’t build a successful democracy on foundations of injustice.

If we had properly acknowledged the past, and the necessity to heal, there would have been more focus on the restoration of dignity, and on redress; more accountability for apartheid murderers who thumbed their nose at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; more self-esteem and less impunity. More justice.

The Archbishop understood this equation with great clarity.

The reverberations of history don’t self-medicate and disappear; they endure. They may remain dormant for years, but without healing they will return, as they have in the US, where descendants of slaves are organising class suits to receive compensation for multi-generational trauma.

It’s not too late.

That then-Mayor De Lille had the foresight to marry this grand remnant of the slave-era to Desmond and Leah Tutu created a profound symbol of healing in our city.

Our pledge to the people of Cape Town is to honour the names of our founders through working to position Desmond and Leah Tutu House as a headquarters for the healing of what the Arch termed the human family.

That’s all of us, Capetonians and South Africans, and the rest of our siblings, from Suriname to Malaysia to Palestine to Sudan…

Sisters and brothers…

The Arch was a pastor without borders, a teacher and a healer. The honorary degrees he received from top universities across the world collectively conferred on him the unique title of Doctor of the Soul.

Whether engaging young people living with TB in an impoverished township in Cape Town, politicians in parliament, academics at top universities, church congregations, or people at large – through engagements with the media – he exuded the same compassion and the same hope.

He travelled around the world to speak to people about the important issues of our time, often not in their first language, but everyone understood.

Once asked to describe the Archbishop, his dear friend Harry Belafonte responded: “He IS Martin Luther King Junior… He IS Mahatma Gandhi… He IS on the path and mission of Jesus Christ.”

How do we do justice to the legacy of such a person?

How do we continue to propagate Arch’s wide-ranging wisdom, on a plethora of topics, not as a mechanism to glorify him, but to re-use the valuable lessons he taught to navigate a more compassionate future?

What value can we contribute, in Arch’s name, to Cape Town becoming a recognised global centre for peace and humanity, as Atlanta in the US is recognised as a key centre for civil rights and justice?

Having a place of the space and stature of this historic building to call home is a critical advantage.

We feel very proud to have gathered today at Desmond and Leah Tutu House. Proud, and blessed to be able to celebrate this event in the presence of our dearly beloved Mrs Nomalizo Leah Tutu.

Honoured guests…

One of the advantages of calling this house, Desmond & Leah Tutu House, is that it creates a collective noun for the endeavours of its tenants, the sister organisations, the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, and the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust.

The Foundation is externally orientated, developing programmes and relationships, from the permanent exhibition behind me, to the annual international peace lecture, to an array of projects engaging children and young adults on issues of peace, humanity and justice…

The Trust is internally orientated, managing copyrights, trademarks and permissions. It is undertaking the enormous task of gathering the Arch’s intellectual property together into a usable digital archive. It is undertaking the work in partnership with the Foundation and universities associated with Arch in the US, UK and South Africa.  

Though separately structured, the Foundation and Trust often speak with one voice. That voice will henceforth emanate from Desmond and Leah Tutu House.

To conclude, I want to briefly take exception to William Shakespeare’s opinion, expressed though Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, that what we name things is not a big deal.

“What’s in a name,” she asked? “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”

South Africa has witnessed the re-naming of much public infrastructure over the past 30 years – mostly from names glorifying colonial and apartheid history to names of people who were involved in the country’s liberation.

There has been little allowance in the overall re-naming project for non-politicians, in general, and non-ANC members, in particular.

But, the thing is, dear Juliet, that that which we called HF Verwoerd Drive smells much sweeter now that it’s called after Bram Fisher.

“The Old Granary”, on the face of it, is a name that speaks to function. But it’s not an innocent name because it wasn’t an innocent function. Its function was to support the colonial extraction of resources, in this instance our food for European tables.

Desmond and Leah Tutu House has an altogether more perfumed sound.

That aside, it is wonderful affirmation of the Arch and Mrs Tutu, global citizens born in Klerksdorp and Krugersdorp, respectively, who embraced this Mother City as their home.

It is important acknowledgement of their role in our history.

Acknowledging the righteous among us, and addressing the injustices with which they wrestled, affords us the opportunity to exchange disturbingly unresolved reverberations of history with aspirations of healing and of hope…

… Which is more or less the intention behind the Dutch government’s year-long consideration of the impacts of its centuries of slavery.

Thank you to all in the City of Cape Town, in this and previous administrations, who translated the dream of establishing a Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in the city into the reality we behold today.

As Arch would have said: God bless you all.