Discussion Session III
RECONCILIATION AND PEACE-BUILDING
Keynote by Archibishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu
Good morning! Ohayo!
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am Desmond Tutu, as I hope most of you would know.
But a few years ago in San Francisco, a lady rushed up to greet me and she greeted me very warmly. And she said, “Hello, Archbishop Mandela!” Sort of getting two for the price of one!
It is a great privilege and a great joy to have been invited back to Hiroshima, to share in this conference, the Hiroshima International Peace Summit; to share with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a wonderful human being, who despite his years of exile, can remain so joyful, so serene, so hopeful; and to share with Betty Williams, who works so hard for peace in Northern Ireland and is now engaged equally passionately on behalf of children. It is a very great privilege to be here. My wife and I came to Hiroshima 20 years ago. We were invited to come and share in the 40th anniversary observance of that ghastly atrocity that had happened on August 6, 1945.
I said last night and I want to repeat here, just how deeply impressed we were by the extraordinary spirit of the survivors, the Hibakusha. For here were people who had survived that awful atrocity, filled not with anger and resentment, but with the extraordinary spirit, the generous spirit of forgiveness. And when we went to the peace museum, this impression was deepened. For here you were aware of people saying, “Never again. Let this kind of thing never happen again, for any people, anywhere.”
You have given us an extraordinary example, and in many ways, it is presumptuous of us to come to speak of peace and reconciliation here, where it was lived out in such an extraordinary manner. We give thanks to God for you wonderful people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thank you! God smiles on you as He looks at what you have accomplished.
Many thought that when apartheid was defeated that South Africa was going to be overwhelmed by a racial bloodbath. It did not happen. Instead, the world saw then long lines of South Africans of all races voting for the first time after the collapse and defeat of apartheid on that extraordinary day in April 27, 1997. That was a day that will forever be etched in our consciousnesses, in the annals of the world’s history, as an extraordinary day, when millions of us voted for the first time. But then, when the bloodbath did not happen there, people said, “ahhh”, just wait until a Black-led government is in power, then you are going to see the most awful orgy of revenge and retribution. It did not happen.
Instead, the world was awed as it witnessed this extraordinary process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, when the victims of some of the most awful gruesome atrocities displayed an extraordinary spirit of forgiveness, magnanimity, generosity of spirit.
May I just as an important aside say we won a great victory over the awfulness of apartheid. But that would not have happened had we not had the support of the international community. And I know that here in Japan, there was a strong anti-apartheid movement group. And I want to say on behalf of millions of my compatriots, thank you so very much for helping us to become free. “Arigato!”
When something happens that is bad, when it happens to an individual, the individual has three options on how to deal with that awful thing. When a husband and a wife quarrel (I hear that happens sometimes), they can do one of three things. They can pretend it has not happened. And the husband can bring a box of chocolates and flowers and pretend nothing happened yesterday. This is the option of the “Let us forget,” or “Let bygones be bygones.” Unfortunately, bygones have a very bad habit of not becoming bygones. They come back to haunt you.
If it is an individual who has had a bad experience, and if he tries to forget it, he may sometimes remove it from his consciousness, but it will go underneath into the subconscious. And one day this ghost rises. But people still try to do that. Let us forget. They usually say, “Let us forget and forgive.”
The other way, which is actually the more frequent way, is for someone to say, “I am going to pay back in the coin you gave me—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” That is a possible way of dealing with an offense, with someone who has hurt you.
Nations try the same. When they have had a bad painful history, some have said, “Let us forget the past and they have what they call a blanket amnesty, or a general amnesty. It is more like a general amnesia. And they discover, Hey! You can’t do that to the past. It comes back and it haunts you. As George Santayana said, “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” We said, no, we can’t pretend that awful things did not happen in our past. And we also said, no, we won’t pay back.
The third way in which an individual, a community, a nation, can deal with the past is to look the beast in the eye. Frequently it requires that we use what are some of the most difficult words in most languages—“I’m sorry. I am sorry.” I don’t know what that is in Japanese, but I know that I find those words difficult to say in the privacy of our bedroom when there is no one there except my wife and myself. It is difficult to say, “I’m sorry. Forgive me.”
Yet that is the most effective way. And that is the way we tried in our country. We said, no, we are not going to try pretend it did not happen. No, we are not going to try to pay back. We’re going to try to walk the path of looking at the horrible things that happened. We gave him drugged coffee. We shot him in the head and we burned his body (and it takes nine hours for a human body to burn) and while the body was burning here we were having a barbeque, drinking beer and cooking different meat—human flesh here and cow flesh there. Awful things happened in our country.
We said, yes, we are going to try to look at the past squarely in the eyes. We are going to open the wound. We are going to cleanse the wound. We are going to pour the balm over the wound and hope that way it will heal.
And God has blessed us in giving us the example of such a Nelson Mandela and many many others, who in the case of Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail because he said, “I’m a human being. I have human rights.” And that claim put him in jail for 27 years. And he comes out and he is the first democratically elected president. And one of the first things he does, he says, “My White former jailor, I want you to attend my inauguration as president. And you will come as a VIP guest.” He invites the wives and widows of political leaders, and most of them are Africaaners, and he says, “Come and have tea with me.”
Does it work? Does forgiveness work?
Well, we’re 12 years from 1994. We have many many problems. But the world still is amazed at the stability there is in South Africa, where you would have expected that by now people would say, no, we really think we ought to pay back. We remember they used to have signs that read, “Natives and dogs not allowed,” telling us that they thought that Black people were really like dogs.
Does it work?
Well, look at the alternatives. Go to Northern Ireland where the eye for an eye principal works. Has it brought peace? No. Look at the Middle East, where the way of retribution, of paying back, does not give you security. The reprisal against the suicide bomber does not stop suicide bombers ever coming again. It is the surest way of having a suicide bomber again. Suicide bomber—reprisal—counter-reprisal—counter-counter reprisal—and it just goes on and on and on.
We have what is called retributive justice. We said there is another kind of justice—restorative justice. Restorative justice says that you care as much for the perpetrator as to the victim. You say the perpetrator retains his capacity to become a better person. You say we don’t believe that once a murderer always a murderer. Restorative justice says we believe in the possibilities of the future. We believe that people can change. We believe that people can become better. We believe that enemies can, if fact, become friends.
It has happened in South Africa. And if it could happen there, there is no reason why it could not happen any and everywhere in the world. We in South Africa have something that we call, it is very difficult to render into English, ubuntu, the essence of being human. Ubuntu says a person is a person through other persons. I cannot be a human being in isolation. I need other human beings in order for me to become a human being. And it says you and I need one another. For we are created for interdependence. We are created for togetherness. We are created, ultimately, for being family. And this is going to be the only way, ultimately, that we will survive in this world. That is the only way in which we will prosper together. That is the only way we will be secure together.
What are the chances of it happening? Well, I said, if it can happen once, then it means I can happen twice. It can happen three times. It can happen—yes, it can happen!
And God depends on you and you and you. God says, “My children, how can you spend so many billions on weapons of destruction when a small fraction of those budgets would ensure that my children, your brother, your sister, had clean water to drink, enough food to eat, could afford a good education and an adequate health care scheme? I need you to help me. Help me, so that my dream can come true. My dream is that my children will wake up and know that they belong in one family—the human family—God’s family.
Discussion
Q: I think that reconciliation is a very important part of the establishment of peace, and is playing a huge role within it. However, sometimes reconciliation disregards the sentiments of the victims, and has even been criticized as having a violent side. Archbishop, what is your view on such criticism?
Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
Thank you very much. Reconciliation can become a dirty word because frequently people make out that reconciliation means don’t confront the evil. That’s cheap reconciliation. True reconciliation confronts the awfulness of what has happened, and you cannot force someone else to forgive. It is something that has to happen freely. And when it does happen, often the wrongdoer must make reparation. I mean if you have stolen somebody’s pen and you say, “Oh, I’m very sorry. Let us be reconciled. Please forgive me.” And you go away with that person’s pen, that can’t be true. That can’t be real.
For reconciliation to happen, the wrongdoer must make good to the extent that they are able to make good for the wrong that they perpetrated. Otherwise you are indeed asking the victim to be victimized yet again. But when true reconciliation happens, the perpetrator should be eager to do all he can to redress.
Q: Archbishop, What do you have to say to the youngsters of Hiroshima involved in peace activities?
Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
All I can say to the young people, and we were supported by young people who are idealistic always, I would say to you—dream! Go on dreaming about a world that is at peace, a world where there is no war, a world where poverty has been eradicated—yes, dream! And reach for the stars. Tell us oldies that it is in fact possible to have a world where everyone lives happily. There no reason why we shouldn’t. And it is you young people who can tell us old ones this world can become a better place.
Q: Archbishop, where did you get the energy to destroy Apartheid from?
Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
Well, I have always known that I have been upheld by the love and the prayers of so many around the world. And yes, I speak as a Christian. I know I was being prayed for by people all over the world. And it was my faith that told me that there is a moral universe; that is to say, it is a universe where there is no way in which injustice will prevail forever. There’s no way in which wrong will prevail over good forever. I knew that apartheid would be defeated. I might not be there to see the day of victory, but I knew. I didn’t say “if” apartheid is defeated, I said, “when.”
And today, too, one knows that you can see people who are tyrants, who strut and go around and look like they are there forever, when I know, you know, history has shown, they will bite the dust. They will almost always wind up being the flotsam and jetsam of history.
Q: What role does Christianity have to play in the realization of world peace? Also, what does the Archbishop think about discrimination against Muslims in Western society?
Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
Yes, thank you. In a way the two questions are related. Sometimes I say, I’m so glad I’m not God, you know, because, you see, God has to acknowledge all of us as God’s children—Bin Laden, George Bush, all of us, even I. And God says, “Oh, dear me, are they really my children?”
Well, it is so important for us to know that religion is morally neutral. Religion is, in a sense, neither good nor bad. It is how it gets to influence you. I use the example, it is like a knife. A knife on the table is morally neutral. I take that knife and cut up bread for sandwiches, it is good. I take that knife and stick it in your guts, the knife is bad. And so with religions. Christianity has given us a Martin Luther King, Jr. It has given us a Mother Teresa. It has given us…and we can go on about all the wonderful people that Christianity has produced.
But we can equally say that the Ku Klux Klan in America uses the cross as its symbol. And what do they do? They lynch African-Americans. They are racists. You can go on—apartheid was supported not by pagans; it was supported by people who went to church every Sunday. The holocaust in Germany, the people who were responsible for it were not pagans; they were Christians. The people who fight in Northern Ireland are not pagans; they are Christians. It is not the faith, it is the adherents. And the adherents are people who are able to work together and are also people who are incapable of working together.
Will they ever become united? They are united sufficiently in many instances to achieve their particular goals. And we hope one day Christiandom will become one, as it was at the beginning. But maybe we will have to wait until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ for that to happen.
I think in a way, I have attempted to answer your question, but the simple fact of the matter is that we seem to find it easy when we have an enemy. You know, when the Cold War ended, we were all so glad because we thought this was ushering in a new dispensation. There won’t be a bi-polar world anymore.
Well, we turned out actually to be naïve, because, you see, the old world of the Cold War provided people with signposts, “Who are you?” “I am anti-Communist.” Remove Communism, “Who are you?” “Well… I’m not quite sure.” And we know it in South Africa. We were very good at being anti-apartheid. And then when apartheid disappeared, we found it very difficult to define who we were.
It seems people have a difficulty, especially in times of great change, people are not able to handle diversity, complexity. They like simplistic answers. And that is why you get ethnic cleansing. I don’t like that which different. It is different in its ethnicity. It is different in the language it uses. It must be different in all kinds of ways. And it must therefore be eliminated.
And some find…ahhh…now we have a justification for our existence. We can fight this terrible thing—Islam. It is a religion that produces, so they say, these terrorists.
Now have you ever heard that Christianity is a religion that produces terrorists? There are terrorists in Northern Ireland, but they never call them Christian terrorists. The world calls them maybe I.R.A. or whatever, not Christians. The people who bombed Oklahoma, they were Christians. And that was a terrorist act. But they didn’t say, Christianity produced these creatures, no!
But they do it, they’ve done it, and we are the ones who should stand up and say, no, there are good Christians and there are bad Christians. There are good Muslims and there are bad Muslims.
The Dalai Lama:
I think I may call my dear spiritual brother, Bishop Nelson Mandela. Actually, I look at both Bishop Tutu and Nelson Mandela almost like one coin, two sides—one a spiritual religious leader, one a politician. But both are totally dedicated to peace, non-violence, reconciliation. So what he stated, I think, is really meaningful and also real authority. So wonderful, so beautiful. And also the way to present. I was once in South Africa and I learned the word ubantu. When I first heard the meaning of this word, I thought it was a really wise meaning and the most important part of human life—love, sense of community, sense of friendship.
So I always admire my spiritual brother, not only just for his marvelous sort of speech, but in his country, he is totally dedicated to non-violence, to reconciliation. Now recently, I saw one short BBC report. Now you are also fully involved and committed about the present difficulties in Africa. So I believe he implements what he believes. So wonderful, just wonderful. Thank you!
Mrs. Betty Williams:
Every time I hear the Archbishop speak, it strikes at my heart. I love him so much. He’s been a friend for many years. And I was reminded, when he talked about the day that the Black people in South Africa got their vote. I was teaching at a university and I had the television on and tears were just streaming. And he was dancing, you know. And so I faxed to him, “Beloved Archbishop. I just watched you cast your vote. Tears are streaming.” About an hour later I got a fax back from the Archbishop. It said, “Dry your tears, you crazy Irish woman. I think the appropriate word is ‘Yippee!’”
On forgiveness, in one’s life, as we go through our life, we are touched by various people. Some of their names you will never know. Like my Auntie Bridey, Bridey Dunn, a beautiful woman. And her son, Danny, my cousin, handsome, six foot-four, a beautiful Irishman, from a family of eight. My Aunty Bridey had eight children, and Danny was the star of the eight, because he wanted to be a doctor. And so he was attending Queens University, pre-med. And on the weekends he worked in a pub for extra money, because the family was poor. Coming home from work one evening, he became an eye for an eye victim, and was riddled to death by the Ulster Defense Unit, a Protestant paramilitary organization, with the sign of the cross. They did an actual sign of the cross. And as my Aunty Bridey opened the door, Danny fell into her arms.
At the funeral, media people can be very cruel, a media person said to my aunt, “How do you feel?” I felt such anger that they would even ask my aunt that question. And I wasn’t prepared for her answer. She turned and looked at the media person and she said, “I am so glad that I am the mother of Danny—and not the mother of the man who killed him.”
So forgiveness had already begun with my aunt and her son who was not yet buried. That’s the kind of courage we all need to have to be able to totally forgive.
As a mother, I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone to take my children or my grandchildren. But I know that I would be capable of forgiveness. Otherwise, I could not do this work. And that’s what makes you so great, Archbishop. You are a caring human being. Forgiveness comes so easy to you. And I learned from you as well as my Aunty Bridey.
