Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu “The Arch”
Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born October 7, 1931 in Klerksdorp in northwest South Africa. He was given his middle name “Mpilo,” which means “life,” by his paternal grandmother when he was born. From childhood on he tenaciously lived up to that name. Archbishop Tutu was a man with humble beginnings who always viewed the glass as half full. He once remarked while his family was not affluent, they weren’t destitute. While he was born with polio and had many health challenges throughout his childhood, he excelled academically. After graduating from High School, he was admitted to the University of the Witwatersrand to study medicine. When his parents could not afford the tuition fees, he followed in his father’s footsteps and applied for and was awarded a government scholarship to attend, Pretoria Bantu Normal College to pursue a career in teaching. In doing so, he embraced the term doctor which in Latin is docere which means to teach. He graduated from the University of South Africa and began teaching at a high school.
Archbishop Tutu was a consummate teacher who could not be confined to a room in a building because God had a higher calling on his life. He was drawn to Anglicanism because of his belief in its capacity to include persons who were historically excluded to engage in debate with differing or conflicting viewpoints together with Scripture and tradition as the basis for reasoning together. So, he exchanged the role of teacher to that of student as he gained admission to St. Peter’s Theological College in Johannesburg to study theology and earned a Licentiate of Theology degree. He was ordained an Anglican Priest. After a few years of serving in various churches he received financial assistance from the International Missionary Council’s Theological Education Fund to further his theological studies at King’s College in London where he obtained a Master of Theology degree. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu#CITEREFGish2004) A trailblazer in his own right, Archbishop Tutu had a string of firsts. He was the first Black staff member at Federal Theological Seminary where he taught doctrine, Old Testament, and Greek; the first Black Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg; the first Black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches; the first Black Bishop of Johannesburg, and the first Black Archbishop of Cape Town.
Though short in stature, South Africans referred to Archbishop Tutu as “The Arch.” While some may attribute the name to an abbreviation of “Archbishop,” a more symbolic way of viewing Archbishop Tutu is as an “Arch, a bridge above and across worldly chasms that devise machinations to divide and destroy the hope and love”[1] of humankind. Archbishop Tutu was able to serve as a bridge by thoroughly integrating the philosophy of ubuntu into everything he did. The word “ubuntu” is derived from one of the Bantu dialects of Africa. It is the philosophy that we are all interconnected and interdependent and our interrelatedness as a collective of human beings is above that of the individual. As Archbishop Tutu put it: “A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed…A person is a person through other persons…we can be human only together.” This was evident in his non-violent activism and advocacy for human rights for all South Africans and those who are oppressed worldwide. In his speeches he clearly articulated his position against apartheid and institutionalized racism as opposed to demonizing White people. He emphasized all humans are children of God.
Archbishop Tutu’s advocacy, activism, and politics were informed by his strong Christian tenets and undergirded by Micah 6:8 (NRSV): “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” In answer to this question Archbishop Desmond Mpoli Tutu unequivocally lived his life with the conviction that as he put it “God calls on us to be his partners to work for a new kind of society where people count; where people matter more than things, more than possessions; where human life is not just respected but positively revered; where people will be secure and not suffer from the fear of hunger, from ignorance, from disease; where there will be more gentleness, more caring, more sharing, more compassion, more laughter; where there is peace and not war.[2]”
[1] Kotecha, Piyushi. (2021, December 31) The People’s Arch: The Interfaith heart and spirit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. https://www.tutu.org.za/the-interfaith-heart-and-spirit-of-archbishop-desmond-tutu/?msclkid=5f302ef0a7da11ec90f86ee9b3160020
[2] Ibid.