- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Image (Nov 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385496907
- ISBN-13: 978-0385496902
- Product Dimensions: 13.9 x 2 x 21 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,989,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
No Future Without Forgiveness
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Archbishop Desmond Tutu stands alongside Nelson Mandela as one of the most iconic figures of the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. As Archbishop of Cape Town throughout the 1980s, Tutu came to symbolise dignified, rational opposition to the iniquities of the apartheid regime, a faithful irreverence for unjust authority that led to his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. In 1995 he took up his greatest challenge: he was appointed Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the remarkable yet harrowing attempt by South Africans to come to terms with the gross violations of human rights committed throughout the apartheid era by offering amnesty and forgiveness rather than punishment and dismissal.
No Future without Forgiveness is Tutu's remarkable personal memoir of his time as Chair of the Commission. It records his insistence on the need to discover a "third way" in the healing of the national psyche, and his powerful belief that "we can indeed transcend the conflicts of the past, we can hold hands as we realise our common humanity". Yet what is so striking about this memoir is his appreciation of the personal cost that the painful testimony of the Commission caused. He grapples with the theological, political and ethical objections to the Commission, as well as offering an absorbing account of the fall of apartheid, the birth of the Commission, and his own lifelong fight for justice and equality. The book offers uncompromising, often horrific, accounts of atrocities and sickening human brutality, from the emotive cases of Steve Biko and Winnie Mandela to the cases of "the little people": those whose voices are so often drowned out or forgotten in the process of political transformation. Tutu's characteristic humour, resilience and compassion are evoked in this memoir in a way that demonstrates how essential they have been to his unique political style and his ability to get results where all others failed. He recalls during the darkest days of apartheid's "vicious awfulness" when preaching about God's authority being "frequently tempted to whisper in God's ear, 'For goodness sake, why don't You make it more obvious that You are in charge?'"
No Future without Forgiveness could be profitably read alongside Antje Krog's equally compelling Country of My Skull, as it considers the emotional toll that such a process of national soul searching has had upon its participants. As Tutu himself points out, "it is a costly business to try to heal a wounded and traumatised people, and those engaging in that crucial task will perhaps bear the brunt themselves ... we were, in Henri Nouwen's celebrated phrase, 'wounded healers'". No Future without Forgiveness stands as the eloquent testimony of one of South Africa's most admired wounded healers. --Rachel Holmes --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
The establishment of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a pioneering international event. Never had any country sought to move forward from despotism to democracy both by exposing the atrocities committed in the past and achieving reconciliation with its former oppressors. At the center of this unprecedented attempt at healing a nation has been Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whom President Nelson Mandela named as Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. With the final report of the Commission just published, Archbishop Tutu offers his reflections on the profound wisdom he has gained by helping usher South Africa through this painful experience.
In No Future Without Forgiveness, Tutu argues that true reconciliation cannot be achieved by denying the past. But nor is it easy to reconcile when a nation "looks the beast in the eye." Rather than repeat platitudes about forgiveness, he presents a bold spirituality that recognizes the horrors people can inflict upon one another, and yet retains a sense of idealism about reconciliation. With a clarity of pitch born out of decades of experience, Tutu shows readers how to move forward with honesty and compassion to build a newer and more humane world.
In No Future Without Forgiveness, Tutu argues that true reconciliation cannot be achieved by denying the past. But nor is it easy to reconcile when a nation "looks the beast in the eye." Rather than repeat platitudes about forgiveness, he presents a bold spirituality that recognizes the horrors people can inflict upon one another, and yet retains a sense of idealism about reconciliation. With a clarity of pitch born out of decades of experience, Tutu shows readers how to move forward with honesty and compassion to build a newer and more humane world.
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First Sentence
April 27, 1994-the day for which we had waited all these many long years, the day for which the struggle against apartheid had been waged, for which so many of our people had been teargassed, bitten by police dogs, struck with quirts and batons, for which many more had been detained, tortured, and banned, for which others had been imprisoned, sentenced to death, for which others had gone into exile-the day had finally dawned when we would vote, when we could vote for the first time in a democratic election in the land of our birth. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
April 27, 1994-the day for which we had waited all these many long years, the day for which the struggle against apartheid had been waged, for which so many of our people had been teargassed, bitten by police dogs, struck with quirts and batons, for which many more had been detained, tortured, and banned, for which others had been imprisoned, sentenced to death, for which others had gone into exile-the day had finally dawned when we would vote, when we could vote for the first time in a democratic election in the land of our birth. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Desmond Tutu has given an extraordinary and illuminating account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa in the late 1990s. Many stories are touching, and quite frankly I did not know just evil and perverse apartheid was till reading this - I thought I knew, but I didn't.
The book is readable, humane, engaging - I've given it 4* not 5* though as it is very much a "Christian" account seen through the eyes of a Christian archbishop. Obviously we would expect that given Tutu's position, but I do personally find something a bit self-righteous (even smug, though not with Tutu who writes with deep humility) in christian accounts..."we know best if only you would see it our way...". Tutu's account of the Israeli position in Middle East affairs described towards the end I found a bit troubling - he mentioned a story of discovering he didn't trust black (Nigerian) pilots on a turbulent flight on account of his South African racial conditioning, yet seemed subsumed by Christian conditioning where the Jews are concerned. I'm not a Jew (or Christian), but have taken time out to see both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian tragedy - and there are two sides Desmond, not one.
Overall though a stirring and touching account of an extraordinary event (the TRC), and I would recommend this book to everyone - above all for its deep and rich understanding of the forgiveness and reconciliation process as a healing of human affairs.
The book is readable, humane, engaging - I've given it 4* not 5* though as it is very much a "Christian" account seen through the eyes of a Christian archbishop. Obviously we would expect that given Tutu's position, but I do personally find something a bit self-righteous (even smug, though not with Tutu who writes with deep humility) in christian accounts..."we know best if only you would see it our way...". Tutu's account of the Israeli position in Middle East affairs described towards the end I found a bit troubling - he mentioned a story of discovering he didn't trust black (Nigerian) pilots on a turbulent flight on account of his South African racial conditioning, yet seemed subsumed by Christian conditioning where the Jews are concerned. I'm not a Jew (or Christian), but have taken time out to see both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian tragedy - and there are two sides Desmond, not one.
Overall though a stirring and touching account of an extraordinary event (the TRC), and I would recommend this book to everyone - above all for its deep and rich understanding of the forgiveness and reconciliation process as a healing of human affairs.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Most Christians, as with other sects, wear their religion on their sleeve. Few, very few, put their principles into practice. The Truth and Reconciliation process, as described here, was a brave and seismic change in thinking in the way to deal with decades of a repressed, exploited and divided society. Will it endure? If it doesnt, we as a species will have regressed. I'm sure it influenced the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland.
An honest, and as described 'personal account' of this extraordinary process.
Most of the people I'd like to meet are deceased. This perceptive and truly Christian individual is happily still with us.
An honest, and as described 'personal account' of this extraordinary process.
Most of the people I'd like to meet are deceased. This perceptive and truly Christian individual is happily still with us.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
26 reviews
78 of 86 people found the following review helpful
a way out of the madness of retribution
13 Sep 2003
Format:Paperback
As I read this, I thought: this must be unusual for fellow Americans to read. We have tended to be a people obsessed with forms of revenge, retribution, surveillance, and punishment we euphemize as "justice" and, since the Bush administration took over, "state security." Ironically, those who pass for followers of the man who said to "love your enemies" have been among the most determined supporters of eye-for-an-eye, letter-of-the-law, and, most recently, preemptive strike.
In this book the former Archbishop of Capetown has given us not only an eye-opening account of the brutalities and intricacies of post-Apartheid justice, but a model for moving beyond the various forms of institutionalized retribution. Pointing out the unworkability of trying and sentencing perpetrators of apartheid, he describes the joys and difficulties of the "truth and reconciliation" approach to justice: the granting of political amnesty to those who make a full confession of their crimes. An additional beauty of the process is its openness to the stories of those who were victimized, many of whom have been willing to pass up the opportunity for legal revenge in order to speak about their sufferings to those who were responsible for them.
Although this amnesty--as opposed to what Tutu calls "amnesia," the denial approach to the past--has not been a perfect solution to the fallout of apartheid, it has offered the world a model of reconciliation at the level of the trans-punishment consciousness of a Gandhi, a Jesus, a Martin Luther King Jr. For that reason alone it bears study by readers who are ready for alternatives to the cycles of retribution that inundate the world even now with ever-widening circles of "moral" warfare and all the rest of the self-justifying brutality that only creates new injustices.
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
A message in morality for the next century.
17 Oct 1999
Format:Hardcover
I interviewed Desmond Tutu in Atlanta just before the release of the book, which he wrote at the rate of one chapter a week; towards the end of the interview I asked him if he thought his prostate cancer had been either caused by or accelerated by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. So much horror, surely, needs an outlet? "Oh, yes," he said, as the warm rain cascaded down outside the studio, "it's had its effect all right. But I am still full of wonder. And I am so grateful that I have lived through it all." By this he means living through apartheid, preventing a necklacing-in-progress, welcoming Nelson Mandela on his first day out of 27 years' of incarceration, being one of the clerics to swear in South Africa's first democratically elected President - and marrying the 80 year-old man on his birthday. Tutu is a humble man, although he calls himself vain; the book displays little vanity. What it displays is a shining, unequivocal message for the next century: we need to search for a new worldwide morality, a new sense of ethics. If we don't, be sure that somewhere, another South Africa will emerge. He spares few people in this sometimes horrifying book: white South Africans who have not responded with generosity to the changes in the country, Nobel Peace Prize winner FW de Klerk, who instigated the change in South Africa; the generals of the past, the mean and the miserly. He sheds light on the behind the scenes tensions of the TRC, surely a microcosm of the new South Africa as it seeks to integrate. He reveals that he nearly resigned at one point; he explains his rage when the final report of the TRC was placed in jeopardy within hours of its release; how he fought to subdue his tears as horror story followed upon horror story. Of these, there are mercifully few in this book, although the voice of the victims shines through on page after page. They want so little, he explains, perhaps just a son's bones so they can be buried with honour. The book is one of massive integrity and a moral message for the future which is upon us.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
A Remarkable Role Model to Follow
14 April 2004
Format:Paperback
Desmond Tutu brings us all a poignant and beautiful portrayal of how love for your neighbor, and forgiveness of injustices must prevail over getting back and fighting, because "there is no future without forgiveness."
His journey was not an easy one, however, with a solid spiritual base, and an extemporary model of sustained dedication to the indwelling truth in his heart, he was able to lead a nation out of apartheid, and into peace and equality.
His humanness and depth make this book one to refer back to, and his model of spiritual equality for all people one to follow for us all.
Deserves 10 Stars!
Barbara Rose, author of "Stop Being the String Along: A Relationship Guide to Being THE ONE" and 'If God Was Like Man'
Editor of inspire! magazine
His journey was not an easy one, however, with a solid spiritual base, and an extemporary model of sustained dedication to the indwelling truth in his heart, he was able to lead a nation out of apartheid, and into peace and equality.
His humanness and depth make this book one to refer back to, and his model of spiritual equality for all people one to follow for us all.
Deserves 10 Stars!
Barbara Rose, author of "Stop Being the String Along: A Relationship Guide to Being THE ONE" and 'If God Was Like Man'
Editor of inspire! magazine
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