The 12th annual Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture is set to take place on Friday evening in Cape Town under the theme ‘A vision for Hope and Healing’.
It will mark the first lecture since the death of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Tutu died in December last year at the age of 90.
The Peace Lecture usually happens on his birthday on October 7. Two international guests, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed and writer Doug Adams will deliver the lecture.
CEO of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, Janet Jobson, says it’s a time to celebrate his legacy of courage and reflect on the loss.
“I think it’s such a moment for us to remember who he was, his legacy, his extraordinary diverse legacy of courage, of compassion, and I think it’s also a moment just to take a pause and really sit with the loss of such an extraordinary global icon, I think particularly for the family. Anniversaries are such hard times when you (are) grieving but we hope through the Peace Lecture, we can also celebrate him.”
Jobson elaborates in the video below:
First lecture without Tutu
Anglican Archbishop of Southern Africa, Thabo Makgoba, says it feels awkward that late Archbishop Tutu’s voice will be missing when they gather for the lecture.
Makgoba extended birthday wishes to Tutu and also sent good wishes to Tutu’s wife, Leah, who is turning 89 next week.
Makgoba says, “It feels funny and awkward that we are gathering without Emeritus for his peace lecture. There is quite an exhilarating feeling inside of me as if he will appear and we will hear his chuckle or his big laughter, but I know we will feel his warmth in the room, from what people will sing, feel and say about him, about ourselves and to ourselves and to the greater challenges we face in South Africa. I know we need to hear his voice, his very critical voice of political processes in our country and social ills. And yet we need his affirming voice for all that is good that this country and the world are doing.”
-Additional reporting by Mercedes Besent
