[Vision2020] Tutu and Mandela: Giants of South African Liberation

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Greetings:

This is my column from last week.  This week's topic is "Gandhi in South Africa" just in time for his 140th BD on October 2.

The Idaho State Journal gave me a full page for the Tutu/Mandela piece, so it took me awhile to fine tune the 1,800 word version.  The full version, which adds Mandela and Allan Boesak, is attached as a PDF file.

Nick Gier

DESMOND TUTU: A GIANT OF SOUTH AFRICAN LIBERATION

Early this month I visited St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa.  For ten years this church was led by Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the first black bishop in South African history and recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.  

When he was appointed archbishop in 1986, Tutu, replacing a white bishop, knew that it was illegal for him and his family to live in Bishop's Place. He courageously defied the racist law and moved in anyway. The authorities did not dare arrest him.

In 1966 central Cape Town was declared a white's only area and all non-white people--most walking to work and living in thriving multiracial neighborhoods for decades--were forced to move to segregated townships 20 miles outside the city.

On September 13 St. George's Cathedral was the scene of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of a protest march led by Bishop Tutu and the mayor of Cape Town. The 30,000 marchers were incensed that 23 people had been killed by police in protests against the exclusion of blacks, "coloreds" (those of mixed race), and Indians from parliamentary elections earlier in the month.  While 25 million non-whites stood by without vote, 2.2 million whites had determined the leaders of their nation.

The September 13th march was a great success and it meant the beginning of the end of "apartheid." This was a brutal policy that declared that blacks were citizens only in their "homelands," 13 percent of the country's worst land set aside for them.  Most of the work was in the cities, and those blacks without official "passes" were arrested and thrown in jail.

In 1996 Bishop Tutu was looking forward to retirement, but President Nelson Mandela chose him to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, one of the most remarkable and successful experiments in healing emotional wounds ever attempted.

The commissioners rejected the Nuremberg trial model, primarily because there were no victors in this largely non-military conflict. Furthermore, as Tutu adds, "while the Allies could pack up and go home after Nuremberg, we in South Africa had to live with one another."  Long, costly trials would have built up resentment and would most likely have led to violent reaction by heavily armed whites.

In his book "No Future Without Forgiveness," Tutu recalls the movie "The Defiant Ones" in which Sidney Poitier was chained together with a white prisoner, and they had to worked together to get out of a ditch in which they were thrown.  Tutu submits that this is exactly the teamwork that is needed for all South Africans to move forward.

The commissioners also rejected the concept of blanket amnesty, a process used in Chile after the resignation of dictator Augusto Pinochet.  Pinochet did set up a "truth" commission, but its proceedings were secret and very little accountability was achieved with regard to the 3,000 people tortured and/or disappeared during Pinochet's rule.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission wisely chose a middle way between these extremes.  One might call it "earned" amnesty, because perpetrators who came forward and told the truth were then granted immunity from both civil and criminal liability. In return many victims and their families were able to obtain closure on their grief.  In some cases perpetrators were able to lead the police to places where bodies had been dumped in make-shift graves.

The white South African government was able to curry the favor of conservatives around the world by declaring that black rule would mean Communist rule and the end of Christian civilization.  The fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 took away the red scare, and it is not a coincidence that this was the time that the racist rulers started to change their minds. 

Except for Zimbabwe, democracy and capitalism are thriving in the four Southern African nations that I visited during my 6-week tour. Everywhere I went, I saw abundant evidence of a very vibrant religious life, especially in the townships where Christian worship services were being held in metal and wood scrap shacks. 

As a student of Christian theology I can say with confidence that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission embodied the ethics of Jesus better than any other Christian institution in history.

Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.  

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