• Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Newsletter
Faithfully Magazine
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
  • About
    • Staff and Advisors
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submissions
  • Q&As
    John Blake photo by John Nowak for CNN

    CNN Reporter Talks Race, Faith and Reconciliation in Powerful Memoir ‘More Than I Imagined’

    Brown Baby Jesus author Dorena Williamson

    Author Celebrates Jesus’ Messy, Multiethnic Family Tree in ‘Brown Baby Jesus’

    KevOnStage and MrsKevOnStage in an interview with Faithfully Magazine.

    Interview: KevOnStage and MrsKevOnStage Talk Sex, Therapy, and Why ‘Marriage Be Hard’ (Video)

    Christina Edmondson and Ekemini Uwan on Truth's Table book

    ‘Truth’s Table’ Authors Talk Early Beginnings, Centering Black Women, and Inspiring One Another

  • Exclusives
    Karen Abercrombie

    After Award-Winning Role in Top-Grossing Christian Movie, Karen Abercrombie Is Leading Change From Within

    black women group

    ‘Righteous and Ratchet’ Black Women of Faith Embraced on Jemele Hill’s ‘Sanctified’ Podcast

    Josh McDowell

    Apologist Josh McDowell Backtracks After Claiming Black Families Don’t Value Education

    Christian author and preacher Dr. Voddie Baucham

    ‘Fault Lines’ Author Voddie Baucham Confused or Making Things Up, Richard Delgado Says in Response to Misquote on ‘Righteous Actions’ of Whites

  • Profiled
    Chris Broussard

    Sports Analyst Chris Broussard Uses Hoops and Christianity to Address Needs of Young Men

    Bishop Noel Jones

    Bishop Noel Jones: Engagement, Life, Family and Ministry (Profiled)

    nadine raphael

    From Prison to the Pulpit: Nadine Raphael on God’s ‘Greater Plan’ for Her Life (Profiled)

    lisa sharon harper

    Lisa Sharon Harper Is Her ‘Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams’ (Profiled)

  • Remember
    Rev. Dr. William Hiram Bentley

    Black Evangelicalism and the Reforming Influence of William H. Bentley

    Marie Bassili Assaad and Mother Irene

    Knitting Together the Community of Love: Lessons From Marie Bassili Assaad and Mother Irene

    Rev. Sutton E. Griggs

    The Complex Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs: From Respected Leader to Race Traitor?

    fannie lou hamer

    Fannie Lou Hamer: Forerunner of Faith-Driven, Pro-Life Democrats (Remember)

  • Opinion & Analysis
    migrants

    When Faith Says to Help Migrants — and the Law Says Don’t

    couple with child

    Missionary System That Brought US Man Accused of Abusing African ‘Orphans’ Was Always Deeply Flawed

    Civil Rights March 1963

    The Women Who Stood With Martin Luther King Jr. and Sustained a Movement for Social Change

    pile of books

    In New Jersey, School Segregation Didn’t End; It Evolved

  • Specials
    • All
    • Growing a Green Church
    clean energy

    Can Money-Making Microgrids Empower Black Churches to Close the Clean Energy Gap?

    laudato trees earthbeat

    Laudato Trees Planting Program Enlists Catholic Properties to Help Increase DC’s Canopy

SUBSCRIBE
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
Faithfully Magazine
No Result
View All Result

Lessons From Desmond Tutu’s Vision of a Post-Apartheid South Africa

Dante Stewart by Dante Stewart
May 29, 2019
Reading Time: 10 mins read
Desmond Tutu Faithfully Magazine

Desmond Tutu. (Photo: Elke Wetzig (Elya) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

65
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It

“Steve Biko is dead.”

These words shook Desmond Tutu, then Anglican Bishop of Lesotho. Tutu and his friends grew numb in disbelief upon hearing the tragic news of Steve Biko’s untimely death. Tutu recounts this story in his book, The Rainbow People of God: The Making of A Peaceful Revolution. “No, it can’t be true,” Tutu thought. He believed deep down that it was only a nightmare from which he and others would soon awake. But no, the South African anti-apartheid activist was dead.

In anguish, they lamented the death of their friend. One question plagued their weary minds: “Oh, God, how long can we go on?”

The year was 1977. In the heat of their struggle against apartheid, Biko, president of the Black Student’s Convention (BPC), was taken into custody on August 18. A few days later, he was handed over to authorities to be interrogated. Interrogation had begun on September 7 at 6 a.m. By 7 a.m., Biko had been brutally beaten, left naked, suffering a brain injury from three blows to the head. Five days later, Biko would be dead, at least the 10th political prisoner to die in custody that year.

At Biko’s funeral, attended by some 15,000 people, Tutu was called upon to eulogize his friend. He lamented that “it all seems such a senseless waste of a wonderfully gifted person, struck down in the bloom of youth.” Weighing on his mind was the awareness that Biko’s death, reminiscent of Tutu’s understanding of the American Civil Rights struggle, revealed that there was something deeply wrong with the soul of South Africa. Biko’s presence that had brought light to people was now enveloped by the darkness of racist violence that sought to sabotage a movement of love and justice. Tutu could only wonder, “God, do you really love us?”

Although words could not do justice to the life of his friend, Tutu knew he needed to speak words of comfort and hope for the people. He issued a challenge for everyone listening, and indeed for us: “In our grief and through our tears, we recall.” He invited those listening to recall Jesus, who “had come preaching the good news of God’s love.” As his friend and fellow theologian Allan Boesak shared, “[T]ime and time, it seems we have to learn the lesson that while our hope has to shape our politics, the center of our hope never lies in politics or politics… If we are to challenge and change the world, we must keep ‘looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.’’

RELATED POSTS

‘A Just Mission’ Is Only Dangerous When You Don’t Know How to Listen

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ & the Absurdity of Love as Resistance

10 Bible Verses About Hope

 

For Tutu, it was Jesus who was crucified unjustly. It was Jesus who came to identify with the oppressed and “the crucified of this world.” It was this Jesus who was no “neutral sitter on the fence” but the One who could get them through their struggle for love and justice.

Moved deeply by the truth of the victorious love of God-in-Christ, he concluded, “We weep with and pray for Mrs. Biko and all of Steve’s family. We weep for ourselves.”

But that couldn’t be the end of the story. In spite of all that pointed to the contrary, God cares; He cares about oppression and injustice.

The powers of injustice, of oppression, of exploitation seemed to have done their worst but they have lost. They have lost, Tutu declared, because “they are immoral and wrong and our God, the God of the Exodus, the liberator God, is a God of justice, liberation, and goodness.” The bishop knew that freedom is coming. If God is on our side, Tutu proclaimed, “Who can be against us? What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction and hardship?” In spite of it all, “overwhelming victory is ours through [H]im who loves us.”

Steve Biko was dead but Tutu knew Jesus Christ was alive. And because he lives, so does hope and love.


Share This Post

Share via

Share This Post

  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
More
  • Report
65
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It
Page 1 of 3
123Next
Tags: ApartheidDesmond TutuHopeInspirationSouth Africa
Dante Stewart

Dante Stewart

Dante Stewart is a student at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is a graduate of Clemson University, where he was a student athlete and received a BA in sociology. His writings have been featured in publications such as Christianity Today, The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, The Gospel Coalition, and Fathom. He and his wife, Jasamine, live in Augusta, Georgia, where he is a local barista.

Related Posts

holding a globe
Inspiration

‘A Just Mission’ Is Only Dangerous When You Don’t Know How to Listen

April 4, 2023
Everything Everywhere All At Once. (A24 Films)
Inspiration

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ & the Absurdity of Love as Resistance

April 23, 2022

Recommended Stories

slavery

Separating Fact From Myth in American Slavery

June 20, 2017
Independence Day

The Truth About the 4th of July and How to Teach Its Whole History

July 3, 2020
Church of Saint Mary of Zion in Aksum, Tigray Region, Ethiopia

Ethiopian Church Massacre: 750 People Reportedly Killed at Site Said to House Ark of the Covenant

January 23, 2021

Popular Stories

  • stream movies laptop

    Free Christian Movies: How and Where to Watch Free Christian Movies Online

    464 shares
    Share 185 Tweet 116
  • Are Jesus and John the Baptist Cousins or Related in Anyway?

    417 shares
    Share 166 Tweet 104
  • Paige Hilken, Wife of North Coast Church Pastor Christopher Hilken, Dies by Suicide

    408 shares
    Share 163 Tweet 102
  • After 20 Years, Bishop Noel Jones Says He’s Finally Ready to Marry Partner Loretta Jones

    365 shares
    Share 146 Tweet 91
  • NYC Megachurch Pastor A.R. Bernard’s Son Dies After Losing Battle With Alcoholism

    286 shares
    Share 114 Tweet 71

Copyright © 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC. This website participates in affiliate programs.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Staff and Advisors
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submissions
  • Q&As
  • Exclusives
  • Profiled
  • Remember
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Specials

Copyright © 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC. This website participates in affiliate programs.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Share via

Share This Post

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link
  • Tumblr
  • Digg
  • Flipboard
  • SMS

Add New Playlist

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
Send this to a friend