26, December 2021
South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu dies at 90 0
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died Sunday at the age of 90, was the moral compass of his beloved “Rainbow Nation”, never afraid to speak truth to power, whatever its creed or colour.
A tireless activist, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for combatting white minority rule in his country.
“The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.
Famously outspoken, even after the fall of the racist apartheid regime, Tutu never shied away from confronting South Africa’s shortcomings or injustices.
“It’s a great privilege, it’s a great honour that people think that maybe your name can make a small difference,” he told AFP shortly before his 80th birthday in 2011.
Whether taking on his church over gay rights, lobbying for Palestinian statehood or calling out South Africa’s ruling African National Congress on corruption, his high-profile campaigns were thorny and often unwelcome.
None at the top were spared — not even his close friend, late president Nelson Mandela, with whom Tutu sparred in 1994 over what he called the ANC’s “gravy train mentality”.
Yet “the Arch” brought an exuberant playfulness to all his endeavours.
Quick to crack jokes — often at his own expense — he was always ready to dance and laugh uproariously with an infectious cackle that became his trademark.
It was Tutu who coined and popularised the term “Rainbow Nation” to describe South Africa when Mandela became president.
At the time, Tutu was serving as the first black Anglican archbishop of Cape Town.
Ordained at the age of 30 and appointed archbishop in 1986, he used his position to advocate for international sanctions against apartheid, and later to lobby for rights globally.
‘Moral titan’
Along the way, he won a host of admirers.
“I believe that God is waiting for the archbishop. He is waiting to welcome Desmond Tutu with open arms,” said Mandela, who stayed at Tutu’s home on his first night of freedom in 1990, after 27 years in apartheid jails.
“If Desmond gets to heaven and is denied entry, then none of the rest of us will get in!”
The Dalai Lama called Tutu his “spiritual older brother”.
Irish activist and pop star Bob Geldof praised him as “a complete pain in the arse” for those in power, and US President Barack Obama hailed him as “a moral titan”.
Among Tutu’s critics were Zimbabwe’s veteran former president Robert Mugabe, who described him as an “evil and embittered little bishop”.
Even with his global celebrity, his faith remained an integral part of his life.
His family’s road trips included quiet time for prayers, and his missives blasting the evils of apartheid were signed off with “God bless you”.
“I developed tremendous respect for his fearlessness. It wasn’t fearlessness of a wild kind. It was fearlessness anchored in his deep faith in God,” said apartheid’s last leader, F.W. de Klerk.
Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and underwent repeated treatment.
He had retired a year earlier to lead a harrowing journey into South Africa’s brutal past, as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
For 30 months, the commission lifted the lid on the horrors of apartheid.
Tutu, with his instinctive humanity, broke down and sobbed at one of its first hearings.
A recipient of numerous awards, his causes ranged from child marriage to Tibet to calls for Western leaders to be tried over the Iraq war, and in later years for the right-to-die.
He also swore he would never worship a homophobic God.
“I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place,” he said.
Post-apartheid frustrations
Born in the small town of Klerksdorp, west of Johannesburg, on October 7, 1931, Tutu was the son of a domestic worker and a school teacher.
Following in his father’s footsteps, he trained as a teacher before anger at the inferior education system set up for black children prompted him to become a priest.
He lived for a while in Britain, where, he recalled, he would needlessly ask for directions just to be called “Sir” by a white policeman.
Tutu believed firmly in the reconciliation of black and white South Africans.
“I am walking on clouds. It is an incredible feeling, like falling in love. We South Africans are going to be the Rainbow People of the world,” he said in 1994.
But post-apartheid South Africa increasingly became a source of his despair, as the high hopes of the early days of democracy gave way to disillusionment over violence, inequality and graft.
Never a member of the ANC, Tutu said in 2013 that he would no longer vote for the party, though President Cyril Ramaphosa — an old friend — re-built bridges after coming to power in 2018.
Tutu made a rare public appearance in May 2021 to receive his vaccine for Covid-19. He appeared outside of hospital in a wheelchair, and waved but did not speak.
He married his wife Leah in 1955. They had four children.
Source: AFP
18, January 2022
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Roman Catholic Priest beaten and abducted by Francophone soldiers!! Vatican won’t talk 0
A priest has been filmed being beaten by soldiers and dragged into a military vehicle in broad daylight in Cameroon. Father Tobias Bekong was abducted on January 12 in Buea in the South West Region. His parishioners say they have no idea why he was taken by members of Cameroon’s elite military force called the Rapid Intervention Battalion or BIR. He was released very late the same day, prompting civil society groups to question why security forces can behave with such impunity.
A local source (anonymous to protect him) says that soldiers ran into the church premises without permission, seizing the priest without asking who he was. His car was ransacked, he was dragged across the courtyard and taken away in a military vehicle.
Father Bekong’s abduction comes as global attention focuses on the Central African nation, which is currently hosting the month-long Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) football tournament. For weeks, separatist militias demanding their own Anglophone country they call ‘Ambazonia’ have threatened to disrupt football games being held in the English-speaking South West Region. Some human rights groups called for a ceasefire, urging the government of President Paul Biya to keep AFCON and civilians safe by announcing a road map toward peace talks mediated by a third party. However, the government continues to pursue a military strategy against the separatist fighters. It has been accused of heavy-handed tactics, including arbitrary arrests, burning of homes, and extrajudicial killings of civilians.
Since AFCON began in early January, there have been improvised explosions, gun battles in and around Buea causing casualties, and the assassination of a respected opposition senator. All employees of the local council have been ordered to attend matches, while academic and support staff at the University of Buea have been encouraged to fill the stadium. There are rumours that officials are paying local people to attend football matches in defiance of boycott demands from separatists. Photos of empty venues during games have circulated on social media. The teams from Mali and Tunisia were reported to have suspended practice sessions fearing they might be vulnerable to attack.
The escalating violence is a blow to the reputation of the Biya government which had assured international football officials that players and spectators would be safe. Cameroon’s plans to host AFCON have twice been postponed: first because of unpreparedness, and then due to Covid. There was embarrassment at the start of the tournament when Cameroon’s mascot was seen wearing a bulletproof vest, surrounded by soldiers. There has also been concern about the spread of Covid, following the misappropriation by Cameroonian officials of $335 million in pandemic mitigation funds provided by the IMF.
In 2021, separatist groups set off more than 80 IEDs, as violence increased in the Anglophone regions. The UN estimates 700,000 out of a population of six million Anglophones have been displaced, and a million children have been unable to attend school for five years due to a separatist-imposed boycott and insecurity. Separatists also enforce a weekly “ghost town” in the Anglophone regions, preventing normal activity every Monday, with sometimes lethal consequences for those who violate the ban. Reputable international rights watchdogs report atrocities against civilians by both government soldiers and armed separatists, charging all sides with behaving with impunity.
Religious figures have equally been targets of both sides. At least seven clergy have been assassinated since 2017, and priests and nuns have frequently been subject to intimidation and attack. As they attempt to preach peace, they face kidnapping for ransom by separatists and arbitrary arrest by government forces.
A local NGO, the Release Them Campaign, claims there are 3,500 Anglophone prisoners of conscience in Cameroon’s nine listed jails and dozens of police and military detention centres around the country. However, this estimate has not been substantiated.
Father Bekong was ordained in 2012. He serves at St Charles Lwanga Parish in Molyko, Buea, and is the principal of St Paul’s College Bojonga in Limbe where several AFCON matches are being played.
A local source who must remain anonymous lamented that the BIR is able to behave without regard to due process because there is a lack of international diplomatic pressure on the Cameroon authorities. In 2019, BIR, which reports directly to President Biya, looted a world heritage site at Bafut in Anglophone North West Region. An Amnesty International report accused the force of torturing and killing civilians.
“The BIR have been told that Biya is untouchable and has the backing of the global community,” said the Anglophone source. “They can behave like colonialist masters. That is why we are fighting them.”
Human rights groups say they regret that rather than use AFCON as an opportunity for peace, listening to the voices of clergy on the ground, the Cameroonian government has instead harmed and detained a religious authority. They say there is a need for sustained pressure by international partners of Cameroon, including the Vatican, to move the violent actors toward a just resolution around a peace table. A year ago, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, visited Cameroon, urging President Biya to join inclusive peace talks mediated by an impartial party such as the Swiss Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. The Cameroon government did not act on his suggestion.
Source: Independent Catholic News