Will Africa ever produce another Desmond Tutu?
AFRICA has great orators, but it may take decades before the continent produces one as charismatic as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel Prize laureate, who announced Thursday that he is retiring from public life. I know you are probably asking, “What about Nelson Mandela? Wole Soyinka? Wangari Maathai?”
You are right. Those are among Africa’s most brilliant. None of them, however, can deliver a message the way Desmond Tutu does — with exceptional charisma and flamboyance. His oratory skills are unmatched, his wit unrivaled. He is intelligent, humble and candid. But what set’s him apart from the rest is that he uses humor to make intricate issues so easy to understand.
Tutu leaves the stage in Minnepolis. Photo: Edwin Okong'o.
Although I’m no longer a believer, Tutu is the only clergyman for whom I’ll drop anything I’m doing to listen to. I have made up an excuse to delay going to work because Tutu came on the radio as I was about to walk out the door. A few months ago I was driving to a friend’s house for dinner when the radio guy announced that Tutu and his daughter were going to be on in a minute. I went to the dinner an hour late. No food could match the endless laughter I got from listening to Tutu.
If you left me babysitting and your kid began bawling while I’m listening to Tutu on the radio, I’d throw the creature in a suitcase and shove it in the closet until the legend finishes talking. Just joking. I wouldn’t do anything Tutu wouldn’t approve of.
When he brings up the word of God, Tutu doesn’t come at you with that “you’re going to hell” attitude, like those extremist men of God from my childhood who made me quit the Church. A couple of years ago I was blessed with a chance to attend one of his lectures in Minneapolis. I left there thinking, “God, if all preachers were as intriguing as this humble servant of yours, this Kenyan heathen would go to church every day.”
Tutu gave a short speech punctuated by punch lines. He spoke against war and bloated defense budgets, calling instead for us to invest more into turning enemies into friends, and helping the needy.
“An enemy is a friend waiting to be made,” Tutu told a crowd of about 2,000 people. “An enemy is really a member of my family.”
The archbishop blamed war and poverty on the fact that human beings had forgotten that they were members of the same family. That had led to governments spending “obscene amounts” of money “making instruments of destruction.”
Tutu challenged believers to emulate God, who he said had no enemies. He began to call from a list of people to bring into the family. The crowd interrupted him after each category to applaud.
“I haven’t finished yet,” Tutu said, followed by laughter from the audience. “George Bush,” he added and the auditorium exploded with prolonged laughter and cheers.
Appealing to those who have plenty to share with the needy, Tutu reminded Christians that on Judgment Day, God would not ask them whether they prayed enough or went to church, but if they fed Him when He was hungry and clothed Him when He was naked. The poor were like babies in a family, he said.
“The baby contributes nothing, yet in a good family you say that we share according to ability.”
After the 20-minute speech, Tutu took questions from the audience, including one about President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who he said used to be a good leader before “something snapped in him.”
Tutu completely avoided George W. Bush’s name in the answer to a question asking for the archbishop’s take on the legacy the former U.S. president would leave. Instead he commended first lady Laura Bush.
“People are going to remember Laura Bush and her concern about Burma. How about that?” he said before slowly tiptoeing across the stage as if to avoid waking someone sleeping. The crowd laughed and rose to cheer.
While understand his need to spend his sunset years with the family, it saddens me to think that I may never get a chance to attend another one of this great man’s lectures.
