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Remarks by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
Spring Commencement
Kenan Stadium
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sunday, May 10, 2009

Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa delivered the following address Sunday (May 10) during the spring commencement ceremony at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mr. President, Mr. Chancellor, chair of the board of trustees, distinguished fellow honorary degree recipients, faculty … wow, it’s a long list. But especially you over there. (cheers from the crowd and graduating seniors in Carolina blue robes). Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. (Crowd: Good morning.) Now, that’s really a lousy response. GOOD MORNING. (Crowd: GOOD MORNING.) Slight improvement. Thank you very much.

It is such a fantastic privilege and joy to be here with you today. You are just an extraordinary bunch of people. I believe you voted and the White House has a new incumbent (some applause and cheering).

I was in East Lansing, and they said “(crying sounds),” “Where are you going?” And I said, “Well, Tar Heels and all that,” and they said “well those guys clobbered us.” Congratulations! (Rousing applause and cheering.)

Sometimes they say to you when you come to gatherings such as this, “Oh this man or woman is well known and doesn’t need to be introduced.” Well, one day I was in San Francisco, and a lady came up and she was quite effusive and warm, and she said “Hello, Archbishop Mandela!” (Laughter.) Sort of getting two for the price of one.

It is a fantastic day, an auspicious day, a day of great celebration …. the celebration of your achievement and wonderfully, wonderfully … your parents, grandparents, your sisters, brothers, spouses, partners, etc. etc. etc. are all basking in reflected glory – your glory! And I ask all of us here to give those fantastic blue-clad creatures, let’s give them a really rousing applause (rousing applause). Thank you, thank you.

But you over there would be the first to admit that you wouldn’t be sitting there had it not been for the incredible support of your parents, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, friends, all of those who have ensured that today you would be the star turn. And I know you want to do this, so I ask you to do what you want to do. Only you in blue over there, clap all of the people who made it possible for you to be there today. (Standing ovation and cheering by seniors.)

OK, OK, We … we …thank you, we don’t really want an orgy, OK? … hel-LO!

But now we also want to express our appreciation to the men and women, some of whom are sitting behind me, others here in front, who guided you, mentored you so that today you are the scintillating successes you are. Some of them of course are a little bemused, that, “Oh, did so-and-so really make it?  But let’s clap your faculty and all of the other people at the University who did what they did (enthusiastic applause).

One day a man walked in the countryside and then came across a farmer who was standing watching his field of corn. The corn was swaying gently in the breeze. And the traveler came and stood next to the farmer and said, “Gee, what a fantastic job you and God have accomplished. Just look at this beautiful, beautiful field of corn.” The farmer kept quiet a little and then said, “Mmm, you should have seen what it was like when God had it all to himself.”

Ah, just before I go on, how could I possibly have forgotten that it is Mother’s Day! Hey, you mothers! We want to clap you! (applause) But of course, you know, fathers might feel a little jealous, but you know, fathers, they couldn’t have been mothers without you (laughter). So maybe we can clap fathers a little bit, too (applause).

But what that farmer was saying (laughter) … was communicating a fantastic joke. But you know, we have a God who is omnipotent. Now you know omnipotent means all-powerful. A God who brought into being all of what exists without help from anyone. And yet this, quite paradoxically, this omnipotent God is also impotent.

You know, when somebody’s hungry, God wants to perform the miracle of feeding that hungry one, but it won’t be normally by hamburgers floating down from heaven. (scattered laughter) If that hungry person is going to be fed, then you and you and you and you and you and you and all of us have to become God’s partners, God’s collaborators, God’s fellow workers, just as the farmer had to be God’s fellow worker to turn what might have been a wilderness into a gorgeous field of swaying corn.

And so when somebody’s naked, God won’t let Carducci suits float down from heaven. (more laughter) God wants to perform this miracle of clothing this naked one, and it is only because you and you and you and you say, “Yes, God, I want to be your fellow worker. I offer to you the means for effecting this miracle.”

When there is injustice and oppression, God doesn’t normally send a lightning bolt. We might wish that’s what God did, but God does not normally send a lightning bolt to zap the perpetrator of injustice and oppression. God waits! God waits on all of us who are prepared to become God’s fellow workers, God’s partners.

And so when you had the injustice and oppression of apartheid in South Africa, God did not annihilate the apartheid upholders. God waited for all of those who would be involved in the anti-apartheid movement. And you know, we suffered under the burden of that awful system and then we won a great victory. We’re free. We are free! (applause)

But you know something? You know something? We couldn’t have accomplished that glorious victory without the help of the international community. There were some fantastic people who said, “God, we are going to be your fellow workers, and students, students – not exclusively, but students, overwhelmingly – were part of this anti-apartheid movement and it was a fantastic thing. I don’t know what cockles are, but the cockles of my heart were warmed. (laughter)

Whenever I came to this country visiting college campuses, students were fantastic.

You might have forgotten that there was a much loved president in the White House who was opposed to sanctions and divestment. President Reagan. Students with their demonstrations, their vigils helped to change the moral climate in this country so that your Congress passed the anti-apartheid movement bill and they even had a presidential veto override to boot.

And I come I come to say “Hey, hey, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (applause) No, no, no, no, no! When you clap … shen you have had shackles, yes, on your ankles, and somebody takes them off you don’t, “ Ha, ha, ha.” (Tutu imitates polite applause).

Let me tell you, I discovered that I had a magic wand … It’s an amazing thing. When I wave it over people, you know what? It turns them into instant South Africans. So I wave it over you and then I can say, “Fellow South Africans, let’s give these Americans a real humdinger. Come on! (applause) Thank you Americans, thank you, thank you! Now that might appear to be sort of play-acting. I want you to know that it comes from the heart – it comes from the heart of millions of my compatriots. Oh, by the way, I wave it over you and you revert to your normal, shy self. (laughter)

God has a dream. God has a dream. And we say, “Hey, God, that was really Martin Luther King Jr. who said that.” And God says, I know, Martin had a dream, I have a dream, too. I have a dream that my children everywhere will know that they belong in one family, a family that has no outsiders. You know, Jesus said “I, if I be lifted up, I will draw – he didn’t say I will draw some – he said I will draw all, all, all! I will draw all! Rich, poor; clever, not so clever; beautiful, not so beautiful; yellow, red, black, gay, lesbian, so-called straight.” (laughter)

God said “All. All. All. All. All. All.” And you know this is radical. All, all, all all men. Palestinians. Israelis. (cheering) All, all. Bin Laden … you know … George Bush … all, all, all, all belong in this family, and God says, “Help me, help me to realize my dream. Help me, help me, help me.

Because if we apply the ethical family … Look, in a good healthy family, you don’t say, “Granny, how much have you contributed to the family budget? You are going to get in proportion to what you contribute.” (laughter)

Oh, baby, baby, baby, what does baby contribute? Most times sort of strange smells. (laughter) And yet baby is the recipient of an outpouring of fantastic love. In a good family, say, “To each according to their need. From each according to their ability.”

If we are family, how can we ever justify spending such obscene amounts on budgets of death and destruction? When we know that just a small fraction would enable children everywhere, our sisters and brothers, to have clean water to drink … we have enough food to eat, we have a decent home, we have a good education, we have affordable health care. How could we possibly, how could we? (cheers) And God says, “Please, please, will you help me?”

And you, you fantastic people over there. God says, “Go on dreaming. Go on being the idealistic people you are. Go on being the ones who believe that poverty can indeed be made history. Go on believing that it is possible to eradicate hunger. How can we live and sleep comfortably, knowing that millions of our sisters and brothers go to bed hungry? God says “Please, please, help me; help me to make this world a little more compassionate. Help me, please, help me to make this world a little more gentle.”

Don’t allow yourselves to be affected by the cynicism of oldies like us. Dream, dream, dream of a world that is going to be without terror because there will be people … nobody will have become so desperate, desperate because of poverty, of disease, of hunger.

God says “Please, please help me. Please help me. Will you? Will you? Will you? Will you? Will you?”

(Standing ovation with graduating seniors pounding the seats.)