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CLIVE ABDULAH

retired Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago

WE JOIN with millions the world over to mourn the passing of a great person, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He was small in stature (you didn’t have to be a Michael Jordan or a Muhammad Ali to tower over him) yet he was very vocal in his fight against all forms of oppression – against those least able to defend themselves, especially the women, children, the poor, and those who fled their homelands in a desperate search for freedom.
It was his deep faith in his God that enabled him to be fearless and strong in the struggle to end that odious system of apartheid. And he rejoiced in the historic first democratic elections in South Africa that ended white minority rule. This is how Archbishop Tutu described that momentous occasion:
“27 April 1994 was the day for which we had waited many long years, the day for which the struggle against apartheid had been waged, for which so many of our people had been tear-gassed, bitten by police dogs, struck with quirts and batons, tortured, banned, imprisoned, sentenced to death and driven into exile...
“We wanted things to be as normal as possible on this extraordinary day in the history of our beloved, but oh so sad land whose soil was soaked in the blood of so many of her children...I prayed earnestly that morning that God would bless our land and confound the machinations of the children of darkness.
“There had been so many moments in the past, during the dark days of apartheid’s vicious awfulness, when I had preached, ‘This is God’s world and God is in charge!’ Sometimes, when evil seemed to be about to overwhelm goodness, I had only just been able to hold on to this article of faith.”
For his relentless campaign against injustice and especially against apartheid, Archbishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
During his work in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to which he was appointed chairman, both Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa and FW De Clerk as vice president and the last president under apartheid felt that Tutu was the best person for the task, which was a heavy burden on the diminutive archbishop. He himself admitted that “There were many moments when I thought that I should have had my head examined for agreeing to take on the job of chairing this particular commission.”
But his heart was big. On one occasion as he heard the terrible atrocities which both sides meted out to those who were seeking a better place to live, Archbishop Tutu put his head beneath the table and cried. How could any human person do such things to another? Again his faith was his guide. As he said:
“Perhaps we (the commissioners) had not realised just how wounded and traumatised we all were as a result of the buffeting we had all in various ways taken from apartheid. This vicious system has had far more victims than anyone had ever thought possible, because it is no exaggeration to say that we have all in different ways been wounded by apartheid...this universe has been constructed in such a way that unless we live in accordance with its moral laws we will pay a price.
“And one such law is that we are bound together in what the Bible calls ‘the bundle of life.’ Our humanity is caught up in that of all others...Each person is not just to be respected but to be revered as one created in God’s image. To treat anyone as if they were less than this is not just evil, it is blasphemous, for it is to spit in the face of God...
“One of the chief, the most blasphemous consequences of injustice, especially racial injustice, is that it can make a child of God doubt that he or she is a child of God. South Africa became the site of a conflict between gravely wounded, badly traumatised combatants...The work of the commission was to try to help heal such a wounded people.”
And so this sensitive archbishop felt the pain of those who were so oppressed, yet he was never afraid to cry out for those in such conditions, especially the women, the children, the poor, those defenceless people and he did so after the end of apartheid when he saw that those now in power became corrupt and “descended to the same low levels as those who they formerly opposed.”
And so we thank God for the voice that was once so strong and vibrant for those who had no voice. His humanity was also felt by all with whom he came in contact with through not only his preaching but his celebration of life as we saw with his dancing and his sense of humour that were undiminished in spite of all that he had experienced.
Archbishop Tutu came to TT on a number of occasions. However, his most impactful visit was in 1987 on my invitation as Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago. Tutu had already distinguished himself as a leading cleric, was a powerful person in the struggle against apartheid and had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
As an outstanding Anglican he was the first black dean of St Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg in 1975, became Bishop of Lesotho in 1976 and after serving as the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches from 1978, he was installed as the first black Bishop of Johannesburg in 1985 and in 1986 became the first black Archbishop of Cape Town – thus leading the Anglican Church in South Africa when apartheid was still very much in existence.
I first interacted with Archbishop Tutu in the early 1970s when he was serving as an associate director of the World Council of Churches and I attended various WCC meetings. It was therefore an honour to host his visit to our shores in 1987. He was accompanied on that visit by his dear wife Leah.
I vividly recall the electrifying impact that his visit had, as for example at the packed Jean Pierre Complex where he preached and made the famous comment that TT is a “rainbow nation.” He was deeply moved by how we as a very diverse society were able, in spite of many challenges, to live in relative peace and harmony. Remember, too, that many of us here in TT publicly involved ourselves in the anti-apartheid movement and I myself was vice chair of the Anti-Apartheid Organisation of TT.
Thus at the national level, church and state have lost a voice at his passing. At the personal level, the Abdulah family has lost a real friend who wrote letters and touched base with us. We will miss him, but we know that as a partner in God’s mission here, his place in God’s eternal kingdom is assured.
So rest in the Lord, dear friend and may His peace be with you, as we know it is, forever! To his dear wife Leah and to all the members of the Tutu family, know that our prayers are with you at this time.
The post Tribute to my friend Desmond Tutu appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.