Giants reunited: Tutu and Mandela saw the greatness in each other

Tutu had this to say about Nelson Mandela’s 27 years in prison: “The time in jail was quite crucial. Of course, suffering embitters some people, but it ennobles others. Prison became a crucible that burned away the dross. People could never say to him: ‘You talk glibly of forgiveness. You haven’t suffered. What do you know?’ Twenty-seven years gave him the authority to say, ‘Let us try to forgive.’”

Tutu was ordained a few months after the 1960 Sharpeville massacre when 69 black South Africans were shot dead. He finally got the chance to vote 34 years later — at the age of 63. 

In May 1994, he triumphantly raised the hand of Mandela, “our brand-new president, out of the box”, to crowds in Cape Town. Together the two Nobel Peace Prize laureates had changed the nation.

Twenty-seven years gave him the authority to say, let us try to forgive

—  Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Through the period when Mandela was in jail and other leaders were in exile, Tutu had  effectively been the voice of the liberation struggle in this country.

In 1995 Mandela appointed Tutu as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

When the hearings opened in East London in 1996, he put his head on his desk and sobbed after listening to a witness describe police torture. He later questioned whether he was the right person for the job. Of course there was no-one better. 

After the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Tutu said of Madiba’s magic: “We needed that victory. I was tingling up and down my spine when Nelson Mandela walked onto that field wearing a Springbok jersey. The crowd went berserk. ‘Nelson! Nelson!’

“Ninety percent of that audience were Afrikaners,” he said. “The same people a few years ago were saying, ‘He’s a terrorist.’ People were dancing on the streets for rugby. If it were soccer, you would understand, but that victory did more than any of my sermons.”

Despite their occasional public differences, the two great men always saw the greatness in each other.