Resources for Teachers and Students on Desmond Tutu
Prepare: Archbishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1984. His biography
and the text of his Nobel
lecture can be found on the Nobel website.
Read:
Desmond Tutu's Architects
of Peace essay is excerpted from his book No Future
Without Forgiveness, a memoir of his time as the chair of
the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In
this excerpt, Tutu reflects on the process of liberation
for marginalized persons.
Explore: Because of his deep commitment to achieving
civil rights through non-violent means, Desmond Tutu is
often considered to be to South Africa what Martin Luther
King was to America. This moral authority became all the
more important when the apartheid laws were finally reversed,
and Tutu spearheaded efforts to curtail violent reprisals
against the white minority of South Africa. Although the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission no longer exists, having
fulfilled its mandate, reconciliation efforts in post-apartheid
South Africa are ongoing through such agencies as the Centre
for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. Details
about their ongoing programs, and links to other South African
agencies dedicated to non-violence, can be found on their
website.
Write: In his Architects of Peace essay, Desmond
Tutu states that forgiveness and reconciliation are not
to be entered into lightly. Why not? What are the demands
of forgiveness and reconciliation that make it a rigorous
process? What are the moral and emotional obstacles one
must confront? Is there ever a time when it's enough simply
to shake hands and walk away? Write a two-to-three page
reflection paper on the demands of this process in which
you focus, as much as possible, on forgiveness and reconciliation
between groups that have long been at odds.
Extend:
Although Desmond Tutu retired in 1996as Archbishop of Cape
Town, he continues to be active in the cause of peace, especially
through the Desmond
Tutu Peace Centre, currently under construction
in Cape Town. One of the center's major focuses will be
to inspire emerging leadership among youth of high school
and college age.
Additional Resource: Desmond Tutu is patron of an
international art project, currently in its early stages,
called "Hands
that Shape Humanity." This project takes wisdom
as its focus, and asks the question, "If there was
only one message of wisdom you could leave behind for humanity,
what would it be?" Numerous other Architects of Peace
will be involved in this project. The exhibit will tour
the world before being permanently housed in Cape Town.
Biography of Desomond
Tutu