| Tutu speaks to GR
By Kat Meyer
Community News Editor
FILE PHOTO
Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke at Van Andel Arena Tuesday night to a crowd of 6,000.
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressed sincere gratitude Tuesday night to Americans for their role in tearing down apartheid in South Africa.
The 71-year-old Tutu, the retired archbishop of Capetown, spoke Tuesday night at the Van Andel Arena as part of the World Affairs Council of West Michigan, Great Decision lectures.
His much anticipated speaking appearance in Grand Rapids, which reached the crowd of 6,000, the second-largest event in the history of the World Affairs Council, behind only the Dalai Lama’s appearance in Oregon in 2000.
Besides praise for the United States’ plights for civil rights and peace, his speech implied that the United States possibly risks its position as protector of peace and freedom through its war against Iraq.
“I ask, if you have the legacy enshrined in helping to release Nelson Mandela from prison and a whole people from apartheid--nonviolently--why tarnish it?” Tutu asked.
Tutu’s speech failed to specifically address U.S. action against Iraq, but was devoted entirely to South Africa’s overthrow of segregation, a story he said proving that peace can triumph over any conflict in the world.
Tutu’s faith in God and South Africa’s truth and reconciliation process--where their government granted amnesty to apartheid regime members who confessed their crime--allowed both victims and inflictors of crime to forgive, despite pessimism that black would inflict suffering on white in return for years of government oppression.
“No one in their right mind would ever have said that South Africa would be an example of anything other than the worst kind of ghastliness,” Tutu said. “But that’s precisely why we can become a beacon of hope.”
Tutu’s speech touched audience members through his jokes and analogies, but also through his vivid accounts of horror and the suffering of South Africans under the oppression of the apartheid system.
The country’s first democratic election wouldn’t have been possible without support from the international community, Tutu said, through prayer and demonstrations and boycotts. Only the enslaved truly know the freedom of having “shackles taken off your ankles and wrists,” he said.
“You can’t compute what it means for someone to say ‘I’m free, I’m free,’ for it’s almost like trying to describe to a blind person ‘this is a gorgeous red rose.’”
Calvin Sociology Professor Marlin Baker has led interims in 2001 and 2002 entitled “Post Apartheid Challenges in South Africa,” where 18 students traveled to and studied the country.ـ
“After the law changed, there is hope, optimism and belief there is a future for the African blacks,” Baker said.
“Both black and white leaders seem to want to avoid bloodshed but there is still a long way to go for true equality.”
Studying South Africa’s apartheid, Baker agrees that the country’s progress is amazing.
“It has changed as there is hope and optimism for the future. Frustration on all sides continue but all seem to agree to work through the Truth and Reconciliation process.”
Although Tutu thanked the United States repeatedly in his speech, Baker believes that Tutu deserves much of the praise.
“Personably, I think the credit for the progress belongs to Bishop Tutu, past President DeKlerk, and Mandela influencing the different races there is a better way than bloodshed,” Baker said.
“Africans should be proud of their efforts to work toward a peaceful solution however they still have a long way to go," Baker said. "Blacks have more opportunities while some whites are leaving the country. ـThe results willـshow with future generations.
"South Africa has problems but also many beautiful people and hope for the future.” Baker said. ـ ـ
During the questions and answer segment of Tutu’s speech, one student question asked how American students can end the apathy to the racism and injustice that pervades throughout the world. But Tutu responded that until Americans recognize the racism in the United States, injustice will continue to be “the albatross around your neck” unless U.S. citizens confront their own history of slavery and the treatment of Native Americans.
Tutu said the abolition of apartheid in South Africa teaches about humans’ capacity for evil. But, after watching enemies reconcile, Tutu said he was more convinced that good triumphs in the humans; we are inherently good.
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