The Wessex Scene meets Desmond Tutu :: Wessex Scene Online

The Wessex Scene meets Desmond Tutu

24th March 2009
Emmeline Curtis Edge Editor

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Desmond Tutu Speech

Students were inspired by a visit from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as the first RAG ‘Community Day’ proved a huge success.

The RAG society’s ‘Community Day’ was held on February 11th, and for one day the Union was crowded with society stalls and local fair trade businesses. Entertainment was provided by the PAU, and secular societies such as Stop Aids and Amnesty International were placed alongside Jewish Society and the Christian Union to spread a message of solidarity and community. Even the Stag’s Head got involved, with exclusive RAG cocktails on sale for the day.

Crowds gathered in the student haunt where the talks were shown on screens; students watched in silence the three main speakers of the day: Alexander Rose, from the STOP campaign, Lesley Belinda, who works for the Tutu Foundation, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu himself, there to spread his message that "we can only be human together."

The event was a huge success, with a lot of money raised for the Tutu Foundation. It is hoped the event will become a yearly tradition, bringing together and raising awareness of the many different groups, cultures, and religions in the University.

Speaking about the day, RAG President Lucy Campion said, "I think it went fantastically. He seemed to really relate to the students, and I think they related back to him. I hope that it reinforced the idea of community within the University."

Tutu’s speech, which lasted around thirty minutes, focused on the role young people, or as he termed us, ‘dreamers’. He congratulated and encouraged our idealism that the world could be a less cruel place, proclaiming that now more than ever this idealism could become a reality. He congratulated those students who for the most selfless of reasons give their time and money to volunteer programmes, and those who take gap year travels to impoverished countries. He expressed his happy surprise that young people in the Western world were turning out ‘whole’ and conscientious, despite the pressures of contemporary society. That they were asking the right questions, simple and too often overlooked questions, such as what justification can there be for spending so much money on destruction and war when there is such poverty and starvation in the world?

There was hope in the Archbishop’s rhetoric as he claimed the world has begun to see that the ideals of goodness and true altruism offer us the best way to live – one world with enough resources for everybody; a global community, full of love. No war on terror can be won when there are conditions in the world which make people so desperate.

He left his audience with: "Go for it, dream the dreams you dream about a better world for all of us. Dream that we will one day be able to share, so that no one need go to bed hungry and that war would never happen again."

After his speech, Tutu, 77, spent time walking around the stalls and talking with the students who had volunteered their time for the day. People gathered to see him as he left for a press conference; interest indicative of Tutu’s unequivocal status as an inspirational advocator of human rights. He took all the attention in good humour, with a smile for everyone.

After Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s speech in the Cube, the Wessex Scene went along to a short press conference to chat about Southampton, young people, and the Church of England.

Have you been to Southampton before?
Tutu: No actually, I don’t think, not Southampton. My wife and two children docked here when they came to England for the first time in 1962.

How have your experiences of Southampton been?
Tutu: Obviously limited, but what I have seen of, and I mainly have seen the student community, it’s beautiful. We drove around a little bit when we went to…I keep trying to remember the name of this village where…Netley Marsh (laughs), and it is beautiful. The countryside is lovely, and you have a very large student community. There are 3000 students at this University, that’s a huge community. It’s a lovely city.

How important to you is it to interact with young people in the way that you have done today?
Tutu: Why, I would have thought my life was totally useless if I didn’t. Of course I mean they, they are, well we say they are the future, but they really are already the present, and I think that if you didn’t, you don’t have the chance of influencing them, and they inspiring you.

You obviously have an important message to spread to people, how important is it coming to Southampton and telling this to people?
Tutu: Well, actually I omitted one thing. This is part of the business of making out that you don’t have notes, I had notes in my head, and the one thing that I did actually forget, which I should have mentioned, is that the students here have been collecting funds and donating them to the Tutu Foundation. Sorry Lucy, that I missed out, I should have. I did think yes I left something out, but then you’ll excuse an old man! You see, there’s something wonderful that’s happening, and this tools for self-reliance is a fantastic project you know, and it’s here.

The Church of England particularly struggles to attract people of ethnic minority backgrounds. What do you think the Church of England can do about that?
Tutu: (Laughs) I think it isn’t just the Church of England here, it is in so many other parts of the world where often the church has not adjusted, you know, and accepted that these people have a culture of their own, and that Christianity ought to come integrated in that culture. Often we have tended, even in South Africa, we have tended to think that God didn’t look at you, couldn’t recognise you unless you wore Western garb, and wouldn’t recognise you if you were dancing and beating drums. But we’re getting better, I mean I think the Church here is aware of this having to integrate the Gospel in a way that belongs in each particular culture.

How do you think minority groups are being seen in the UK, and what problems are they facing?
Tutu: Woooo. I think they are seen in many parts possibly as problems, but you know we live here, and maybe we are protected by belonging to the church community. We didn’t experience the kind of racism that often is exhibited in Britain, which comes usually when things aren’t going too well economically. Then you look out for those who look like you, and outsiders tend to get the thin end of the stick!

If people in the United Kingdom could do one thing to better support Africa, what would it be?
Tutu: Help to make poverty history. (Laughs) Isn’t that smart! Yes, I mean, I think it is ultimately making the economic order, the international economic order more just, more fair. Because I mean look, you have subsidies here for your other cultural. I think it was the BBC that showed in a programme that in the EU they spend $2.50 per day per car, and there are people round the world, millions, who survive on less than $1 a day.