A Scintillating Success, Waiting to Happen

Those were the closing words of the 7th Steve Biko Memorial Lecture given last evening in Jameson Hall here at UCT by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. I was lucky enough to be in attendance with about 1,500 other members of the UCT community, and (apparently) a Danish Princess - which was a running joke throughout the proceedings. Tutu spoke, in his own colloquial and eloquent fashion, for nearly an hour, linking the promise of the new South Africa to the black consciousness movement of the 1970s, of which Steve Biko was a leading proponent. He was, at one, lofty and mundane, speaking of the ideals set forth by Biko and his teachings, whilst also speaking of a need for the people of this country to take pride in their surroundings, going on for a good minute or two about the sad state of the South African public service, and littering in the cities. Tutu struck a particular chord in speaking about the mundane details of life, however. The prelate made the point that the Apartheid regime, which for so long had created an initmate sense of fear and terror within the African communities of this nation, still, in the long hangover since 1994, breaks the spirit of those people in many ways. He advocated a sort of citizenship re-education, teaching those who were oppressed under the ancien regime to take pride in their communities again and play key roles in their stewardship. For Tutu, all is not lost, however, as he referenced, briefly, Peter Gabriel's tribute song to the memory of Steve Biko, saying that when the South African police brutally tortured and assassinated Biko, they thought they could "blow out his candle," annihilate his memory and influence on the African community. But, as Tutu - and Gabriel - proclaimed, you cannot blow out a fire. The wind will catch it and the flames reach higher. Tutu's fervent hope is that the winds of change will blwo through this country, and lift the spirits - and communities - of this great nation higher and higher.