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DESMOND TUTU: CHURCH RESISTANCE to APARTHEID and INJUSTICE in AFRICA Peter Lodberg1 Introduction Church People—Lay and Ordaine

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DESMOND TUTU: CHURCH RESISTANCE to APARTHEID and INJUSTICE in AFRICA Peter Lodberg1 Introduction Church People—Lay and Ordaine CHAPTER TEN DESMOND TUTU: CHURCH RESISTANCE TO APARTHEID AND INJUSTICE IN AFRICA Peter Lodberg1 Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931) was born in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa. He was educated at Johannesburg Bantu High School. After leaving school, he trained as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and, in 1954, he graduated from the University of South Africa. Tutu was a high school teacher for three years before he began to study theology. He was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in 1960. From 1962–1966, he studied in London, England, for a Master of Theology. He taught theology in South Africa and returned to England to serve as the assistant director of a theological institute in London and work in the scholarship programme of the World Council of Churches. In 1975, Tutu was appointed Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg. From 1976–78, he was Bishop of Lesotho and, in 1978, became General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. In 1986, Desmond Tutu was elected Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. He retired as Archbishop in 1996. He chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 1994–1998. Tutu is honorary doctor of a number of leading universities in USA, Britain, and Germany. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Introduction Church people—lay and ordained—played an important role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Through the churches’ ecumenical network, church leaders like Beyers Naudé, Desmond Tutu, Allan Boesak, and Frank Chikane were able to mobilize inter- national support from churches around the world for freedom, justice, and democracy for all in South African. Through the South African Council of Churches, contacts were established to the World Council of Churches and to national church councils and relief organizations such as Danchurchaid, Norwegian Church Aid, Christian Aid, and 1 The author is former General Secretary of Danchurchaid and has known Des- mond Tutu since 1983. 262 peter lodberg Church of Sweden Aid. Especially, the Program to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches was active on the international political scene and challenged the churches to take a more active stand in the struggle against apartheid. Kaj Munk was a source of inspiration for the Reformed minister Allan Boesak, who played an important role in the struggle as a public speaker and an internationally known theologian with a clear anti- apartheid message. He had come across some of Kaj Munk’s writings during a visit to Holland. Outside a bookshop, he discovered by acci- dent some book titles that caught his attention, and he began reading Kaj Munk’s books. In March 1984, Allan Boesak organized a seminar in Cape Town on Kaj Munk and gave one of the main presentations entitled A holy rage for justice—Kaj Munk and South Africa. The paper was originally written for a Danish book on Allan Boesak edited by Flem- ming Behrendt called Livet værd. Reverend Paul Honoré participated in the Kaj Munk seminar in Cape Town together with Flemming Behrendt (Behrendt 1984; Honoré 1995). To my knowledge, Allan Boesak is the only one of the leading church people in South Africa fi ghting apartheid, who knew the name of Kaj Munk and was inspired by his words and actions. Beyers Naudé was inspired by the Confessional Church in Germany during World War II and the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, while Archbishop Desmond Tutu represents—as we will see—an interesting mixture of African Ubuntu-anthropology inspired by the Black Consciousness Movement, High Anglicanism, and social activism in the tradition of the former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple. Desmond Tutu—Who is he? Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born October 7, 1931 in the city of Klerks- dorp in South Africa (Du Boulay 1988; Kristiansen and Lislerud 1984; Tutu 1984a). His father was a teacher at the local school, and his mother worked at home as a housewife. When Tutu was 12 years old, the fam- ily moved to Johannesburg, where he entered secondary school. From 1951–1953, Tutu was educated as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College, and after graduation he worked as a teacher from 1953–1958 at Munsieville High School, Krugersdorp. He resigned from his teaching position after having protested to the Prime Minister about the Bantu Education Act that would make it almost impossible for young, black .
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