Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, spoke at Elon University's Spring Convocation for Honors on Wednesday, April 2. Earlier in the day, he held a news conference with members of the regional media. Details...
At the convocation, Tutu received an honorary doctorate of humane letters in front of a crowd of 2,800. In his address, “No Future Without Forgiveness,” he spoke of his country’s struggle with apartheid and the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994. “I waited until I was 62 years of age when I cast my first vote,” he said.
“We in South Africa learned that true security cannot be gained from the barrel of a gun,” Tutu said. “God has a dream that one day we, God’s children, will realize that we are all members of a family . . . We are all bound up together.”
Tutu said that the people of the world are sisters and brothers, and should help each other attain basic necessities such as food, water, education and health care.
“Then we will see the security — when we all live as God intended us to live.”
Earlier in the afternoon, Tutu smiled as he entered a news conference in Elon’s School of Communications. But the Nobel Peace Prize winner quickly turned his thoughts to the war with Iraq.
“This is a war that should not have happened,” Tutu told reporters. “But the war is happening and one wants to express condolences with all those who have lost loved ones in this country and in Iraq.”
When asked about reconstruction after the war, Tutu said, “I would hope that the United States would allow the United Nations to play a prominent role in that.”
Tutu said that young people should be encouraged to promote peace. “We need to keep reminding them that they are not yet cynical,” he said. “They can say, ‘We are pro-peace.'”
Tutu became the first black Anglican bishop of Johannesburg in 1985 and was named archbishop of Cape Town in 1986. He continued to call for an end to forced segregation until apartheid collapsed in 1994, following the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa. Mandela appointed Tutu to head a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights violations.
Several local and regional media outlets covered the event, including WFMY-TV (CBS), WGHP-TV (FOX), WXII-TV (NBC), Time Warner Cable’s News 14 in Raleigh, Elon Student Television and WFDD-FM in Winston-Salem. Click the links below to read newspaper coverage of Tutu’s Elon visit:
Greensboro News & Record, April 3
Burlington Times-News, April 3
Raleigh News & Observer, April 3