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Club Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this very special luncheon meeting of The Commonwealth Club of California and the World Affairs Council of Northern California. I am Robert Gordon, vice president of the World Affairs Council. We thank the Adelphia Foundation, organizer of this national tour, for coordinating this program.

Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in the town of Klerksdorp, in the southwestern corner of the Transvaal, South Africa. His father was Zachariah Tutu, a teacher in the mission school. His mother was Aletta Tutu, a domestic servant. When he was 12, the family moved to Johannesburg. His mother obtained employment in the mission school as a cook. This was one of the fateful coincidences that shaped the Bishop's life, because he came to the attention then of the Anglican cleric Trevor Huddleston, who mentor he was for a long time after that, and who was a role model as well.

He wanted to be a doctor, but there was no money available in the family to send him to medical school. So when he graduated from high school in Johannesburg he went to the Bantu Normal School in Pretoria and studied to be a teacher. At the same time he took a correspondence degree from the University of Johannesburg. After graduating, he taught for three years in two different schools. The third year was 1957.

In 1957 the South African government passed the Bantu Education Act. The Bantu Education Act provided that the blacks in South Africa were, by design, to receive a second-class education. He was unable and unwilling to teach in such an environment, and he and others resigned. He then had to consider a new career, and he went into the ministry. He studied for the ministry and graduated with his degrees a short time later. Following that, he served in two ministries in South Africa. Thereafter he went to England and studied further in England; and for the next ten years served in England and South Africa in positions of increasing responsibility with the Episcopal Church.

In l975 he came back to South Africa and became dean of the anglican organization in Johannesburg. Thereafter he became Bishop of Lesotho, and thereafter became the first black secretary of the Interdenominational Council of Churches in South Africa. In l984, he was named Bishop of Johannesburg.

There is no need to tell this audience anything about our speaker's career thereafter, because it is well-known, I'm sure, to all, as it is to citizens around the world. Because of his courage and eloquence, our speaker has come increasingly to be recognized as the leading voice for human rights in South Africa. This recognition culminated in the award of the Nobel Prize for Peace in l984.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present the Right Reverend Desmond Tutu, Bishop of Johannesburg, South Africa.

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