Irish Examiner view: Spiritual father and voice of the voiceless
Archbishop Desmond Tutu photographed in 2009 on one of his frequent visits to Ireland with then president Mary McAleese at the opening of a new music room at St Joseph's School in Ballymun. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire
The passing of Desmond Tutu, spiritual father of the Rainbow Nation and friend to the dispossessed and the poor, has lost us the influence of a leader described as a “moral titan” by former president Barack Obama.
The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner’s charisma, wit, and resilience created a bridge over which Nelson Mandela could lead his people on their walk to freedom. He introduced South Africa’s first freely elected president from a balcony in Cape Town in 1994 telling a highly-charged crowd: “We are the Rainbow People of God.”
It was the culmination of a long journey by two of the principal architects of the downfall of segregation. Both chose homes in the township of Soweto; both were adepts at the toyi-toyi dancing which symbolised the street protests against the ruling Afrikaans government; both spoke the languages of their neighbours. Tutu’s taste for personal publicity, often disarming, was an asset when arrayed against international leaders. When Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher refused to pioneer the application of sanctions Tutu said: “America and the West can go to hell.”
His independent spirit made the archbishop the ideal, indeed the only, candidate to lead the Truth and Reconciliation Commission charged with investigating the transgressions and atrocities of the apartheid era commencing, in 1960, with the Sharpeville Massacre when 69 people were killed.
His final report heavily criticised the National Party of Verwoerd, Vorster, and Botha, but also the abuses committed by the African National Congress. He was scathing about the ANC under the direction of the corrupt president Jacob Zouma. The archbishop championed the causes of gay people, campaigned for help for HIV sufferers, and was in favour of assisted dying.
On his way to collect his peace prize in Oslo he famously met the Dunnes Stores strikers in London after a 21-year-old checkout operator was suspended in Dublin for refusing to handle South African grapefruit, prompting an industrial dispute which lasted nearly three years. It led to an Irish government embargo on the import of goods.
The archbishop appeared on the long-running BBC radio series Desert Island Discs and chose as his personal luxury an ice-cream maker (particularly for rum and raisin ice cream). His last choice of song was ‘Sweet Sounds Struggle for Peace’ by the Imilonji Kantu Choral Society.
“I love to be loved” he told interviewer Sue Lawley. He was.
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