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MEMORABLE PEOPLE
ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
Tutu’s keynote address at Elon University, “No Future Without Forgiveness,”
ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
Tutu’s keynote address at Elon University, “No Future Without Forgiveness,”
A photo from the April 3, 2003, edition of the Pendulum shows
Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaking before a large audience at Alumni Gym.
He was with Leo Lambert .. President Emeritus and Professor of Education
Original article: https://www.elon.edu/u/news/2019/12/19/elontbt-archbishop-desmond-tutu-speaks-at-elon-in-2003/ target = _blank > Original article:
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
During the 1990s and 1990s I did a variety of consulting assignments around the world including a good number in Africa.
The most economically valuable economy was in South Africa where apartheid was the way of life.
During my consulting career, I did work in Lesotho, an independent country completely surrounded by South Africa.
I also did work in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony with a history of racial segregation
And also Namibia in connection with its independence from South Africa in 1992. At the time a large international consulting team were motivated by the idea that it Namibia could be successful in trnsitioning away from apartheid, then it could also be possible for South Africa to transition as well.
Working with the UN, three os us were responsible for the preparation of the first development plan for Namibia post independence and the documents required in support of a fund raising conference to be held at the UN in New York about three months after independence. This fund raising effort by the UN was the biggest ever up to that time, getting pledges of almost 1 billion dollars to support Namibia's development plans.
Subsequently, I was called in to work with the Namibian Government in support of the mobilization of funds that were pledged at the fund raising conference in New York. Several months after the 'funding conference' none of the pledges made by well over 50 nations had been fulfilled ... and it beceme my job to turn pledge words into useable money!
This turned out to be quite a challenge.
I was particularly annoyed by the United States ... the richest country in the world, and pretty aggressive in talking about their importance in the world. Out of a total of nearly a billion dollars pledged, the United States share was just $50,000 !!!!!!!!!!! I was furious and probably not very diplomatic and eventually the US inceased their support to $500,000 ... still ridiculously small compared to the US's economy and the verbal bluster it produces!
On the other hand, the Japanese had made one of the biggest pledges and wanted their donation to be as valuable as possible. Their laws made it difficult because all material donated by Japan had, by law, to be delivered in Japanese flagged ships. At the time Namibia's need was food, and massive amounts of food were available near Namibias in Zimbabwe ... a truck journey away. No ship required! The Japanese tean came up with a wonderfuil 'work around'. The Japanese purchased a trucking company in South Africa which became effectively a 'Japanese flagged' enterprise and these trucks moved grain from Zimbabwe to Namibia. This creative move provided Namibia about twice as much food as it would have received with this wonderful Japanese creativity within the law!
Namibia was a success ... not perfect, but pretty good.
And the icing on the cake was that South Africa was able to end apartheid within a couple of years after the Namibia success. Again, not perfect, but major progress ... and, of course, in the middle of this was Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
A lesson from all of this is that progress is rarely perfect ... the fastest way to success is a lot of relatively small steps in the right direction!
Peter Burgess
Written by Patrick Wright, staff
December 19, 2019
Thousands of people packed into Alumni Gym nearly 17 years ago to hear from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African cleric who fought the apartheid system and championed human rights around the globe.
Tutu’s keynote address, “No Future Without Forgiveness,” was part of the April 2, 2003, Spring Convocation for Honors, which celebrated Elon seniors named to the President’s List and Dean’s List in 2002.
Tutu spoke to a sold-out audience of 2,800 people, discussing the trials and tribulations of the South African system of institutionalized racism known as apartheid. He told stories about the battle to bring down the system and the importance of forgiveness in the nation’s journey toward unity.
“We came to realize forgiveness is not something nebulous – a namby-pamby thing meant for religious people or others who are sentimental,” Tutu said. “It isn’t just a facile slogan. There is no future without forgiveness.”
Tutu worked as a pastor, educator and administrator in South Africa and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his commitment to achieving racial equality by peaceful means. His nonviolent protests helped lead the charge against apartheid, which was brought to an end with the formation of a democratic South African government in 1994.
During his Convocation for Honors address, Tutu explained the key to attaining peace is understanding what we have in common with others.
“We are all bound up together, and God’s dream is that you and I and all of us will help God realize God’s dream, that we belong in this family in which there are no outsiders – all are insiders,” he said.
In recognition of Tutu’s humanitarian efforts, Elon awarded the archbishop an honorary doctorate at the 2003 ceremony. The Honorable Henry E. Frye, Sr., former chief justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, presented Tutu with the Doctor of Humane Letters, which was conferred upon him by President Emeritus Leo M. Lambert.
“Sustained by his deep faith in God and his conviction that racial segregation is evil, Archbishop Desmond Tutu rose up like a profit of old to denounce apartheid in South Africa,” said Lambert, who read a citation before congratulating Tutu on the honor. “With steadfast courage, he spoke out against injustice and exploitation and used the tools of nonviolent protest to focus world attention on the oppression of non-whites in his homeland.”
University Chaplain Emeritus Rev. Richard W. McBride gave the invocation during the ceremony and called it an honor to have Tutu speak at Elon.
“It must not escape our notice that Archbishop Tutu confronted the evils of apartheid – not through violent action but by declaring, persistently, a vision of human community, which exposed that evil at its core,” McBride said.