JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and
Nelson Mandela forged a lifelong bond fighting together to end
apartheid in South Africa, even if the two icons did not always agree.
اضافة اعلان
Tutu’s death on Sunday at 90 plunged
South Africa into mourning, eight years after the country lost Mandela, its iconic first
black president, following a long battle with illness.
The two men differed in many aspects from stature to
tactics, but both separately became
Nobel Peace laureates for their roles in
ending white-majority rule.
“They had a complex relationship based on a similar
sense of justice and a true friendship that allowed them to disagree on many
things,” said political analyst William Gumede.
Tutu, a short and charming Anglican clergyman
committed to non-violence, used his religious robes as a shield against the
apartheid regime.
Mandela, a tower of calm strength 13 years his senior,
instead turned to armed struggle against the country’s rulers, becoming South
Africa’s “public enemy number one”.
Both men at different points in their lives lived a
stone’s throw away from each other on the same street in Johannesburg’s Soweto
township.
But they did not meet until they were adults, when
Mandela was asked to judge a debate competition in which Tutu was participating
before the activist stood trial for treason and sabotage in 1963 and was handed
a life sentence.
After Mandela emerged from jail 27 years later as
apartheid crumbled, he stayed at Tutu’s home on his first night of freedom.
A black and white image of the grinning pair taken
around that time soon became iconic.
When Mandela
became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, Tutu coined the term
“Rainbow Nation” to describe the country.
At Mandela’s request, he retired in 1996 to become
head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, embarking on a harrowing
journey to reveal the horrors of apartheid.
But as the country transitioned to multiracial
democracy, the archbishop did not hesitate to call out his old friend.
Tutu despaired at the high salaries, cars and
generous benefits ministers enjoyed during Mandela’s single five-year term.
In a 2003 interview, Tutu said Mandela’s one flaw
was “his quite extraordinary degree of loyalty” when perhaps he should have
shown certain ministers the door while president.
“I think that was a major weakness in someone who is
practically flawless,” he said.
But if he was ever ruffled, Mandela continued to
value his friend’s opinion.
“Madiba respected Tutu enough to go back as a friend
and ask for his counsel,” said Sello Hatang, head of the Nelson Mandela
Foundation, using the late president’s clan name.
Tutu’s weariness towards politicians from the ruling
African National Congress (ANC) only increased under Mandela’s successors.
He criticized Thabo Mbeki’s handling of the AIDS
crisis and swore never again to vote for the party over rampant corruption
under Jacob Zuma.
Relations had soured so much that when Mandela died
in 2013 the ANC did not invite Tutu to the burial.
It was only after Tutu objected publicly that he was
able to speak at a memorial service in Soweto’s Soccer City stadium for the man
he said he “loved and treasured”.
The archbishop lauded Mandela for his commitment to
creating a non-racist society and for his lack of bitterness towards his former
oppressors.
He held many fond memories, recounting that Mandela
spoke excitedly about his Mozambican wife Graca Machel, whom he married in
1998.
“His face is glowing, he’s one of the best
advertisements for love and marriage,” he said.
In a tribute to Tutu on Twitter, South Africa’s
President
Cyril Ramaphosa used Mandela’s own words to describe the archbishop’s
impact on South African life.
“President Nelson Mandela said of him that his was a
voice that was ‘sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid, and seldom
without humour’,” he wrote.
Mandela was a fervent admirer.
“I believe that God is waiting for the archbishop.
He is waiting to welcome Desmond Tutu with open arms,” Mandela said.
“If Desmond gets to heaven and is denied entry, then none of
the rest of us will get in!”
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
