The Archbishop: All 4'10" of him.

Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Mpilo Tutu once said, “our fundamental hunger is for goodness and generosity.” By ‘once' I actually mean this morning in front of 600 of my peers and myself. How’s that for a class assembly? He sat onstage, swallowed by a red, floral-patterned upholstered arm chair and guarded by the microphone stand that almost hid his small face. Listening to this large-minded small man, what struck me wasn’t his profound but also candidly ordinary wisdom. It was his belly-deep contagious laugh.

Here is a man that has stood in front of millions of people throughout his life and spoken out for countless causes; besides earning a Nobel Peace Prize for his role as a unifying leader for resolving the issue of apartheid in South Africa, he has campaigned against poverty, HIV/AIDS and TB, racism, homo- and transphobia/Gay rights (stating, “I cannot pray to a homophobic God”), sexism, climate change, US immigration laws, (plus so much more), and has an outlandishly long wikipedia page listing his resume of well over 100 honors from countless different countries. He has contested flaws within humanity, oppression, resistance, ignorance, disillusionment and discrimination of all kinds. Yet as he spoke of such dark, heavy matters and experiences, his laugh was all it took to illuminate the room.

His hour-long talk was a Q&A with our Dean who read questions that students had submitted earlier in the week. After a few initial questions, Dean John, who is actually very close with the Archbishop, interjected with his own prompt for Father Tutu to discuss the Amy Biehl story.

Amy Biehl was a white American graduate student who was an Anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa, stabbed and stoned to death by a black mob as they shouted anti-white slurs. Her parents traveled across the world for the trial. Yet not only on behalf of the family, but also on behalf of the entire political movement his daughter passionately fought for, her father spoke, “the most important vehicle for reconciliation is open and honest dialogue…we are her to reconcile a human life which was taken without an opportunity for dialogue…we must move forward with linked arms.” The family had requested amnesty for her murderers. They created the Amy Biehl Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides programs for African youth in townships in efforts to fulfill three rights in South Africa’s constitution: the right to education, to equal employment and to health.

As Nelson Mandela’s (basically) right-hand man, it was inevitable that their friendship was to be discussed. I expected him to speak so highly of him right off the bat. Instead, he nostalgically told how he would always make fun of Nelson’s outfit choices, saying “he always wore the funniest pink shirts” and began his deep belly laugh, which the whole audience echoed upon reflex. But what he did say about Nelson Mandela was how he went into jail full of anguish and frustration, but how 27 long years later, he came out with a profound understanding and great value of the other side, of his oppressors.

I wanted him to speak forever. This “fundamental hunger” he had mentioned earlier came full circle. How do you come to want freedom for your child’s murderers? How do you learn to understand why people threw you in jail for wanting peace? How do you put aside years of fighting against the heaviest of humanity’s issues and see the world as a beautiful place?

It’s easy for one person to kill with kindness. In middle school when girls get mad for no reason, in those awkward email disagreements when elders give you sass but end up being in the wrong, or in Apartheid when Nelson Mandela gets jailed. My question is, how do you get an entire group of people to do that? Only truly lucky people have goodness and generosity come to their doorsteps. If goodness and generosity is really what we want from others, maybe we should use it a little more often ourselves...

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality” ~Archbishop Desmond Tutu