Bishop tutu

Born on the West Rand in 1932 of a Motswana mother who worked as a laundress and a Xhosa father who taught at the local school, Desmond Mpilo Tutu's tribally mixed parentage caused problems with the bureaucrats of the tribal homelands system set up under apartheid. In his passport, which was confiscated frequently as punishment for his criticism, his nationality was described as "undetermined at present". This is apartheid's final solution, he noted. Tutu could remember as a child his black schoolmates venturing on to the grounds of a white school to rummage through dustbins into which the white children had discarded their unwanted school lunches. At senior school near Johannesburg the young Tutu came under the influence of a white priest, Trevor Huddleston, a major figure in the early years of the anti-apartheid struggle. On matriculation, he was accepted by the medical faculty of the University of Witwatersrand, but lack of funds meant that he could not take up his place. Instead he spent three years at the all-black "Bantu-Normal College" in Pretoria reading for his BA. To make a little spending money, Tutu caddied at the local white golf course, but admitted he didn't have much of an eye for lost balls.

For four years after graduation. Tutu taught at secondary schools, in the process meeting and marrying his wife, Leah, another teacher. But in 1957 the Bantu Education Act was passed and he objected strongly to having to work in the new system which was designed to restrict black education to a level consistent with primary forms of labour.

It was then, at the age of 25, that Tutu joined the Church. After attending theological college in Johannesburg, he left for England, where he studied divinity at King's College, London, before returning in 1962 to lecture on theology in South Africa and Lesotho. Three years later, he went back to London with his wife and four children to work for the World Council of Churches.

In 1975, Tutu became the first black dean at Johannesburg Cathedral, going from there, after a short stint as Bishop of the Diocese of Lesotho, to take up the hot seat as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, the official spokesman for the country's 13 million Christians. It was a controversial appointment, and he soon used the Council as a launching pad for blistering attacks on apartheid. It was not long before the wrath of the administration descended upon him, and in 1981 a commission was set up to investigate the affairs of the Council.

In an eloquent submission, Tutu attacked the all-white commission for seeing things from a white perspective. In a voice of extraordinary range - from booming bass to angry yelp — Tutu attacked his accusers. He warned them that they were 'taking on the Church of God"; and that other tyrants before them had tried to destroy the Church - Nero, Amin, Hitler, Bokassa. "Where are they today? They have bitten the dust ignominiously. I warn the South African government again - they are not gods, they are merely mortals who will end up as mere marks on the pages of history, part of its flotsam and jetsam. I am not afraid of them".

When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, after having been nominated twice before, the government reaction was foreseeable. While Tutu accepted the prize on behalf of "all those people whose noses are rubbed into the dust every day", and blacks were jubilant, the government issued a terse "no comment", and the Afrikaans press fulrninated that the late Alfred Nobel would be turning in his grave. Polls were conducted to show that three-quarters of white people in South Africa believed he did not deserve the award.

In 1986, he was appointed Archbishop of Capetown - head of the Anglican Church in South Africa. Many observers saw this irrepressible imp of a man who liked to describe himself as a teddy bear, as the only figure holding back a tide of violence against the state.

A reluctant leader, who admitted to being "catapulted into prominence" because all the black political leaders were in prison or exiled, Tutu dismissed any suggestion of personal political ambition. He cited three good reasons against this: Archbishop Makarios, Ayatoliah Khomeini and Bishop Muzorewa. Instead, he tried to stay aloof from the partisan black politics, reserving his energy for attacking apartheid, and he remained a popular figure with a wide range of black political groupings.

Sunday Times Magazine

Exercise 1. Desmond Tutu had a variety of jobs, each with a title associated with it. Link the title on the left with the location associated with it on the right:

1.	dean	a)	night club
2.	bishop	b)	bank
3.	headmaster	c)	aeroplane
4.	director	d)	diocese
5.	clerk	e)	court
6.	foreman	f)	kitchen
7.	barrister	g)	cathedral
8.	vicar	h)	company
9.	bouncer	i)	school
10.	receptionist	j)	church
11.	stewardess	k)	building site
12.	chef	1)	hotel

Exercise 2. The passage contains many colourful images and metaphors:

1. The hot seat.

2. A launching pad.

3. Bite the dust.

4. Flotsam and jetsam.

5. Irrepressible imp.

6. Teddy bear.

7. Holding back a tide of...

8. Catapulted into prominence.

Match them against their plainer equivalents:

1. suddenly made important;

2. discarded rubbish;

3. cuddly children's toy;

4. preventing;

5. the difficult position;

6. die;

g) starting position;

h) lively little devil.

Exercise 3. Answer the following questions:

1. What is Desmond Tutu's nationality as stated in his passport?

2. Where did he have his secondary education?

3. Why didn't he go on to the University of Witwatersrand?

4. Where did he have his higher education?

5. When did he join the Church?

6. How did he use his position as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches?

7. What personal qualities made it possible for Desmond Tutu to become such a prominent figure in the modern world?

8. What was the reaction of different society groups to his Nobel Peace Prize award?