Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and 1984 Nobel Peace
Prize laureate, spoke yesterday on American foreign policy at an event
commemorating the 50th anniversary of Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for
International Affairs.
Five hundred people lined up outside the American Repertory
Theater beginning two and a half hours before the event to hear from
the noted South African social justice advocate. Hundreds more were
turned away at the door.
Tutu’s talk, entitled “Goodness Triumphs Ultimately,”
denounced current American foreign policy and stressed the importance
of the United States’ position as a global leader.
While Tutu counted the U.S. as a strong ally in the fight
against apartheid, he has been critical of American foreign policy
during the Bush administration.
“You taught us no government worth its salt can subvert the
rule of law. We believed you,” Tutu said at a gathering of Nobel
laureates last year, according to The Washington Post. “That’s part of
what you have as a gift for the world. Then how can you commit
Guantanamo Bay? Take back your country.”
The crowd at yesterday’s talk appreciated Tutu’s message.
“He’s incredible. The zeal, the way he speaks—he could sell
toilet paper and you’d want to buy it,” Libby A. Cunningham, a student
at the Harvard School of Public Health, said.
“He was just so affable, he addressed the management of world affairs but with a real personal touch,” Brian S. Reale said.
“I think he inspired faith in the possibility of progress in a sometimes confusing world,” Utpal Sandesara ’08 said.
Sandesara added that, while the talk was motivational, he felt
Tutu somewhat over-simplified the dichotomy between justice and
injustice. He cited Tutu’s attempt to explain the current situation in
the Middle East in terms of absolute good and evil.
“His framework is a very different one,” said Yinliang He
’08. “It’s beyond argument and counterargument. It’s theologically
based.”
Outside the Loeb, a handful of protesters held signs denouncing Tutu and accused him of being “an imperialist.”
Tutu is here for the two-day conference of Weatherhead Center
alumni fellows called “The Search for Solutions to the World’s
Intractable Problems.”
“Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s opposition to apartheid,
his commitment to stopping AIDS and treating its victims, his advocacy
of inclusiveness for his church, and his dedication to peace
distinguish him as one of the most significant social figures as well
as humane individuals of our time,” Beth A. Simmons, director of the
Weatherhead Center, said in a press release.
“I think it was very fitting and appropriate that Desmond Tutu
was chosen and invited to be the keynote speaker,” Kathleen S. Molony,
director of the fellows program at the center, said after the talk. “It
was a great launchpad for our whole conference.”