Love and Forgiveness in Governance: Exemplars: Desmond Tutu

by Ernest Ogbozor

Desmond Mpilo Tutu is an Archbishop and social rights activist that opposed the apartheid rule in South Africa. Tutu in his book "No Future Without Forgiveness"[1], recounted his experience while growing up as a boy in South Africa. According to him, thousands of blacks were arrested daily under the iniquitous pass-law system. He noted that as a person over the age of 16, you had to carry a pass; it was an offence not to have it on you when a police officer stopped you and demanded to see it. In another case, he asked a fundamental question: how could you tell your child that s/he is not the kind of child that can use some particular area of a beach reserved for white children?[2]

However, the ordeal that Tutu and the other black South Africans went through during the Apartheid regime did not change his vision for his country. He underlined that when he became Archbishop of Cape town in 1986; he set out three goals for himself. One of the goals was to seek liberation for all South Africans, blacks and white inclusive. He was the first black man to be appointed the Dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg, and the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. He was also a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.[3] Tutu's journey in life was a remarkable one, according to him, "a spectacular vindication it has been, in the struggle against apartheid, to live to see freedom come, to have been involved in finding the truth and reconciling the differences of those who are the future of our nation."[4]

According to Tutu, towards the end of the apartheid regime in 1989/90, there were predictions that the blacks that had suffered under the regime would engage in revenge and retribution against the whites. However, Tutu noted, "the world saw something quite unprecedented. They saw the process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, when perpetrators of some of the most gruesome atrocities were given amnesty in exchange for a full disclosure of the facts of the offence. Instead of revenge and retribution, this new nation chose to tread the difficult path of confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation."[5]

Tutu believes that forgiving and being reconciled with your enemy is not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong, he believes that reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, and the truth.[6] To Desmond Tutu, forgiving is not forgetting; it's actually remembering and not using your right to hit back. It's a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important, especially if you don't want to repeat what happened in past.[7] Desmond Tutu has not only lived and practiced forgiveness, he also teaches forgiveness and has publications on forgiveness. A food for thought from his teachings on forgiveness is that "differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another."[8] Tutu is a successful exemplar of Love and Forgiveness in Governance.

 

[1] Desmond Tutu, "No Future Without Forgiveness.," Essence (Essence) 30, no. 9 (January 2000): 58.

[2] Ibid.

[3] "Desmond Tutu — Biography," accessed January 25, 2013, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-bio.html.

[4] Tutu, "No Future Without Forgiveness."

[5] "Let South Africa Show the World How to Forgive," accessed January 28, 2013, http://www.sol.com.au/kor/19_03.htm.

[6] "Reconciliation | Wesley Foundation @ MSU," accessed January 28, 2013, http://msuwesleyfoundation.com/2012/01/09/reconciliation/. (Site no longer available.)

[7] "The Chance for New Beginnings | OdeWire," accessed January 28, 2013, http://odewire.com/53756/the-chance-for-new-beginnings.html.

[8] "No Future Without Forgiveness," accessed January 28, 2013, http://robt.shepherd.tripod.com/tutu.html.