No Future Without Forgiveness

No one is more qualified than Tutu to give a thorough account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC’s) work. As its chairperson, he confronted the challenges that the TRC faced both from a skeptical public and in the tension among its own membership. He chaired meetings during which victims told their harrowing stories and had access to all the TRC’s written statements and reports. Another thing that qualifies Tutu to tell this tory is his own experience.

Tutu’s early education was at a mission school where his father taught. He saw from childhood how the racist system humiliated his father. After attending the Theological College, Tutu was ordained an Anglican priest in 1961. Importantly, he lived in London for a time, where he earned a master’s degree, and he later was an associate director for the World Council of Churches. Tutu therefore experienced life in societies that did not legally segregate races and then returned to South Africa, where apartheid strictly enforced segregation. This perspective only intensified his sense of injustice.

In the 1980s, he played a critical role in drawing both national and international attention to the injustice of apartheid. This work earned him the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984.