Tutu: Truth To Power exhibition will be opened on 25 March 2022 at the Old Granary, home of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, Cape Town.
This exciting and thought-provoking permanent exhibition is entitled Truth To Power: Desmond Tutu and the Churches in the Struggle Against Apartheid. Curated in partnership with the Apartheid Museum, this state-of-the-art exhibition celebrates the life and legacy of Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu. It is housed at the historic Old Granary building, the home of the Foundation and the Tutu IP Trust and will be a welcome addition to Cape Town’s popular cultural heritage precinct.
The exhibition forms part of the Foundation’s Knowledge Legacy Programme and supports its mission of ensuring that the uncompromised bravery and values of its founders are celebrated, communicated and curated for posterity.
Despite the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate’s profound impact on South Africa and the world, there has been no single permanent exhibit solely dedicated to Archbishop Tutu. The exhibition begins to acknowledge his massive contribution and serve as a basis for addressing the distinct deficit in school and university curricula of material about the multi-faceted life and legacy of this global icon.
More importantly, the exhibition aims to be more than just an ode to the past or a monument to the Arch. It will be a place where people, young and old, are challenged and inspired to take up the baton of courageous and ethical leadership and emulate the unwavering values that the Archbishop demonstrated throughout his life.
“We need to have the courage to speak out against injustice, just as the Arch did. In South Africa, we are seeing deeply troubling trends, such as the resurgence of xenophobia, attacks on whistle-blowers, as well as a relentless assault on our democracy due to rampant corruption. We are also living in unprecedented times where a pandemic has exposed the deep inequalities that continue to plague our global landscape,” said Foundation chairperson, Niclas Kjellström-Matseke.
“Our young democracy has not had the chance to fully heal. Healing is not an act of turning a blind eye to the issues, but acknowledging and confronting them in a constructive and peaceful manner. Healing requires introspection, it requires us to learn from the past so that we do not end up making the same mistakes. Learning is part of healing and that is part of what this exhibition hopes to do,” he added.
Just three months after his sad passing, the exhibition will remind us of Tutu’s courage to speak out against injustice, his bold activism and his attempt to bring healing and reconciliation to a divided society. It brings together well-researched text, powerful photographs, film footage, as well as documents and other artefacts related to significant moments in his life.
Tutu: Truth To Power maps his legacy through six different themes
- Apartheid Education: The Most Evil Act of All – How the apartheid-era policy of Bantu Education changed Tutu’s life and South Africa’s history
- The Struggle in the Church: Fighting a False Gospel – The church as a site of struggle between those who supported colonialism and racial oppression and those who fought against it
- Faith in Action: The Campaign for Sanctions – How apartheid’s policy of forcibly removing people of colour from areas designated for white settlement sparked international sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid state
- Protest and Peace-Making: In the Streets and Stadiums – How Tutu took every opportunity to preach defiance of apartheid in all its manifestations, to advocate for justice and to plead for peace
- Unfinished Business: Tutu, Truth and Reconciliation – The achievements of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission as well as its unfinished business
- TU+TU = Freedom – Speaking truth for global justice – how Tutu did not stop his activism when South Africa gained democracy, choosing to continue to be an activist for justice across the world
There is also a special room celebrating the special relationship between the Arch and his beloved wife and anchor, Leah Nomalizo Tutu, and another dedicated to his relationship with President Nelson Mandela.
“The Foundation has done a great job in drawing on the founders’ rich archive to represent the Arch’s important contribution in a sensitive and responsible manner. We look forward to more such initiatives in the years to come to make sure that the Arch’s legacy lives on”, commented Dr Mamphela Ramphele, chairperson of the Tutu IP Trust.
The Old Granary
The significance of the exhibition being located at the Old Granary should not be missed. The historic building mirrors South Africa’s complex history and holds a painful narrative of injustice, slavery and suffering under the hands of colonizers. The building had multiple uses. Once a women’s prison, it was described by one of the women held captive there as a “den of infamy”.
In a foreword for a book on the Old Granary’s history Archbishop Tutu wrote: “But it was only on hearing about the Old Granary’s rich and chequered past, that I realised that this too was a home with many rooms…. We want to use this building, so rich with South Africa’s history of strife and division, to make visible the compassion and dignity needed by our country – and all people of the world – to make global peace a daily reality.” Through its work, the Foundation intends to turn it into a beacon of hope by creating a place of learning and healing.
Archbishop Tutu was under no illusion just how difficult the process of healing would be. In his book, No Future Without Forgiveness, he wrote: “forgiving and being reconciled are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the degradation, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end dealing with the real situation helps to bring real healing. Spurious reconciliation can bring only spurious healing.”
The Truth To Power exhibition officially opens to the public for self-guided tours on March 25.
WHAT: Truth To Power – Desmond Tutu and the Churches in the Struggle Against Apartheid.
WHERE: Old Granary Buiding, Buitenkant St, Cape Town 8000 (entrance at pedestrian walk on Longmarket Street)
WHEN: Open from 25 March 2022. Mon to Fri 09:30am – 15:30 (Closed on Public Holidays)
TICKETS: R50 adults | R25 pensioners and students | Free for all under 12 years’ old
INFO: T 021 552 7524 | E communications@tutu.org.za | Visit
Lead Photo Credit: David Ross
