When Nobel Peace Prize winner and South African cleric Archbishop Desmond Tutu is awarded the 18th U-M Wallenberg Medal by President Mary Sue Coleman, the honor will be celebrated with additional events including a film on forgiveness, a lecture by a human rights activist and an exhibit examining apartheid.
The medal presentation will take place at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29 in Hill Auditorium, followed by Tutu’s delivery of the Wallenberg Lecture.
The first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Tutu rose to international fame during the 1980s as a deeply committed advocate of nonviolent resistance to apartheid. His passport was twice revoked and he was jailed in 1980 after taking part in a protest. It was widely understood that Tutu’s growing international fame shielded him from harsher punishments.
After apartheid fell, and in 1994 the first free multi-racial elections in South African history led to a black majority government. The new president and formerly imprisoned anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela asked Tutu to investigate atrocities committed on all sides during the apartheid years. Nelson then appointed Tutu chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Tutu described the process of the TRC as using “restorative rather than retributive justice, which is a kind of justice that says we are looking to the healing of relationships.” Tutu’s memoir “No Future Without Forgiveness” is an account of his work on the commission.
The Wallenberg Medal is named after Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, a 1935 graduate of the College of Architecture who saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews near the end of World War II. The Raoul Wallenberg Endowment was established in 1985 to commemorate Wallenberg and to recognize those whose own courageous actions call to mind Wallenberg’s extraordinary accomplishments and values.
For more information go to www.wallenberg.umich.edu.
Coming up
In addition to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Oct. 29 lecture, the Wallenberg Endowment is co-sponsoring the following free events:
Oct. 27
The Challenge of Freedom After Apartheid in South Africa, with Yazir Henri.
Henri is a poet, writer and professional human rights activist. He is founding director of the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory in Cape Town, South Africa. Henri currently lectures at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Time: 7:30-9 p.m.
Location: Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Branch
Oct. 28
“Forgiveness” (118 minutes, 2005, South Africa).
This film screening also will feature an introduction and Q-and-A session led by Lucia Saks, professor in the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures.
Time: 7-9:30 p.m.
Location: Michigan Theater
For more information go to wallenberg.umich.edu/outreachact.html.
Through Dec. 19
“Apartheid and Resistance: An Exhibit in Honor of Archbishop Desmond Tutu”
This exhibit will feature both visual and textual materials on the anti-Apartheid movement of the 1960s-90s.
Time: Open for viewing during regular library hours
Location: Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, North Lobby
