NONVIOLENCE TUTU’S INFLUENCE

Similar to Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, Tutu is committed to
Over the time that Tutu has fought against the apartheid, not
nonviolence and has shown unimaginable strength and courage to
achieve what he has achieved despite the harsh circumstances and
rejection he never gave up and never resorted to violence if he wasn’t
heard. His reason for nonviolence can be argued as religious practice
where Tutu would pray for others. However, he has admitted to
nonviolence as also being partly a personal choice as he has greatly
endangered his life multiple time to save people from a murderous mob.
He has stated himself “I wouldn’t, myself, carry guns or fight and kill.
But I would be there to minister people who fought they had no
alternative.” This really shows Tutu’s strength to not resort to
nonviolence as he would be between the fighting, but he would still
attempt to teach people that violence is not the right way. Tutu always
knew that nonviolence would never work out as he had said before that
“Nonviolence presupposes a minimum moral level. And when that moral
only has achieved so much but has affected millions of lives
for the better. For example, after more than a decade of
relentless work Tutu was able to make his dream of a world
without apartheid come true due to himself and colleagues
such as Nelson Mandela who worked together with Tutu to
achieve success numerous times. Furthermore, Tutu has
contributed to stop the spread of HIV after a major break out in
Africa. He attempted to resolve and reduce the issue by
starting up a foundation called the Desmond Tutu HIV
foundation (The DTHF). It is structured into a research
division with each division under a separate leader. This means
that Tutu has been a vital factor to make South Africa a place
of no discrimination and has set South Africa on the way to a
society without HIV. Other than changing society forever Tutu

DESMOND TUTU; level does not operate, I don’t think nonviolence can succeed”, and as we
can see today that violence had no meaning and it would not result in
anything positive. Another reason why Tutu never condoned or
has also acquired many other accolades such as becoming
Archbishop of Johannesburg and also being awarded the 1984
Nobel Peace Prize for his success of battling against the

THE MAN BEHIND

contributed to the violence in South Africa at the time could also be apartheid without utilising violence to be heard. More recently
because of his strong belief that if we kill each other we can never be he was awarded the Presidential Medal of freedom.
human. In one of his quotes he addresses this by saying “My humanity is
bound up in your, for we can only be human together. Tutu was not only

MANDELA’S known for his success through nonviolence but also with his beliefs of
forgives as he thought that no matter what anyone has done to affect you
they should be forgiven. One of his most recognised quotes on

PRESIDENCY
THE LIFE
Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African cleric and a
leading spokesman for nonviolence in South Africa. Born in
Klerksdorp, South Africa on 7th of October 1931, his parents were
Aletha Matlhare and Zachariah who had jobs as domestic workers and
headmasters respectively. When Tutu had reached the age of 12 the
family made the decision to move to Johannesburg where Desmond
attended Johannesburg Bantu High School. Despite Tutu’s dream of
becoming a physician, his parents weren’t able to send him to medical
school due to financial difficulty so in 1945 he began his secondary
education which would result in him meeting Father Trevor Huddleston
who would have a large impact on Tutu’s religious upbringing. At the
end of the year 1950, he passed the Joint Matriculation Board exam
going as far as studying into the night using a candlelight. He decided
to follow his father Zachariah’s footsteps and to become a teacher. In
order to study for a teacher’s diploma, he enrolled at the Bantu Normal
College from 1951 to 1954. He first pursued his father’s example as a
teacher at his old school in Krugersdorp. He however abandoned that
career after a law was introduced that lowered the standards of
education for black South Africans, so they only learned enough for a
life of servitude. This law was called the Bantu Education Act which
was set in 1953. There was a statistic that the government spent one-
tenth as much money on a black student’s education as on the education
of a white student. This showed the strong prejudice and tension that
still remained in South Africa on both sides. After graduating from the
University of South Africa in 1954, he obtained a Bachelor of Arta
degree in 1955. In the same year on July 2nd he married Nomalizo Leah
Shenxane with whom he would have 4 children with. After his marriage
he began to teach at Munsieville high school, the same school where his
father was headmaster. Due to the fact that the educational system in
South Africa was designed to promote inequality Tutu quit teaching in
1957. The next year, he enrolled at a college in Rosettenville and was
awarded a licentiate of Theology with two distinctions. As he had been
admitted as a sub-Deacon by 1955 he was ordained as a deacon in 1960
and in 1961 he was ordained as a priest the following year. Due to this
he was transferred from St. Albans Church to a new Church in
Thokoza. In 1962 Desmond left South Africa to commence his
Theological studies in London that he had begun at St. Peter’s college.
The Tutu felt as if they had been freed from their life of apartheid. In
1966 Desmond received his PG degree in Theology from King’s
College. When Tutu returned to South Africa he begun to protest
against racist education which would spark the beginning of his large
impact on anti-apartheid protests.
In 1970 Tutu travelled to the University of Botswana, Lesotho and
Swaziland in Roma as a lecturer in Theology for two years until he
decided to move back to England. Desmond began to rise in terms of
international prominence when he became the first black person to be
appointed the Anglican Dean of Johannesburg in 1975. Due to this
achievement he emerged as one of the most eloquent in the anti-
apartheid movement of South Africa and had never used violence to
project his views. After consulting his family, he decided to accept
the position of Bishop of Lesotho on the 11 th July 1976 after being
persuaded to do so. In 1978 he had once again changed history as the
first black person to hold the position of Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral
located in Johannesburg. He used his position and international
prominence to encourage an end to the apartheid. During the time of
the rise of The South African Council of Churches (a contact
organization for the churches of South Africa) Tutu really started to
get recognized for his anti-apartheid beliefs. Desmond wrote a letter
to the South African Prime Minister at the time expressing his views
that if the apartheid goes on there could be alarming consequences.
However, his letter was ignored by the Prime Minister. Although
Tutu did not receive a reply, his relentless determination to end the
apartheid made him write many other letters to the Prime Ministers of
Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho and Presidents of Mozambique
and Botswana. In 1979 many unions were formed by black workers
such as the UDF (The United Democratic Front) which was formed
with the intention of stopping the apartheid. Tutu was one of the
unions significant spokesmen. Due to his large impact on the world to
end the apartheid, in March 1980 the Government withdrew his
passport which prevented him from not only travelling overseas but
also receiving awards that Tutu had won. On 7th August 1980 Tutu
met with the Prime Minister which made history for the first time that
a black leader with not only a white government leader but the Prime
Minister. This paved the way for many other meetings like this to
come. Unfortunately, the first meeting achieved nothing as the
government would not change its ways after hearing was Tutu had to
say. Tutu could carry on achieving ridiculous things such as
conversing with the Pope in 1983 about the situation in South Africa.
The next year in November Tutu found out that he was elected as the
Bishop of Johannesburg until he as enthroned as Bishop in 1985. In
recognition of the heroism shown by black South Africans during the
tough time of apartheid Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984
due to the peaceful method that he approached against apartheid.
After more than a decade of fighting back against apartheid in 1993
apartheid came to an end with Tutu being such a major part of it.
forgiveness is “Without forgiveness, there’s no future”, meaning that if
you do not move from something you cannot prosper as you need to
forgive.
In this book
(published in 1999)
Tutu describes his
childhood and
adolescence living in
the apartheid era
explaining the
difficulties that came
with this segregation.
He examines
Mandela’s election
and how it will be for
the better of South
Africa. Tutu also
emphasises on the
meaning written in
the title, and at that
time when the
apartheid had finally
come to an end
Former US President Barack Obama awards Archbishop
people really realised
Desmond Tutu the Presidential medal of freedom in 2009.
that Tutu was right
Tutu is 1 of 123 people being awarded this medal by
from the beginning
former President Barack Obama. Tutu is also the only
that if everyone
South African to acquire this medal. He was awarded this
for his large part in the end of the apartheid in South
Africa.
Other than the book above Tutu additionally has multiple further on the To conclude, it is safe to say that Desmond Tutu has had a
art of forgiveness such as “The Book of Forgiving” which was massive impact on not only the people of South Africa, but
published in 2014. To spread the importance of forgiveness, Tutu he has also been a role model to the whole world in terms
established something called “The Forgiveness Project”. As he was the of success through nonviolence. The former Archbishop is
chairman of the TRC (South Africa’s Truth and reconciliation even regarded by many as the true disciple of Gandhi due
Commission) which was created by Nelson Mandela’s Government of to his way bringing peace to a whole country through
National Unity. This was established in 1995 with the intention of nonviolence. Tutu is up there with names such as Gandhi
enhancing a person’s ability to forgive. They did this by informing and Martin Luther King Jr. as monumental people in the
South Africans about the people who may have caused harm or trouble world that we live in today. Although, Tutu had announced
to them between 1960 to 1994, however they were expected to forgive that he has retired from public life in 2010 he has left us
the perpetrators who may have affected their lives. The committee also with a changed world for the better, and as Tutu has said
provided support and reparation to the victims and their families from before:
the troubles that other people had caused them. In the end the
Government would then compile a full record of the atrocities of the “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little
apartheid on the South African society. bits of good put together that overwhelm the world”