African Woman and Child Feature Service

Naomi Tutu walks in the shadows of her father

Her father has a pocket full of prestigious awards, she too appears destined for a handful of crowns to make true the saying like father, like daughter.

The third born of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Nomalizo Leah, Naomi Tutu, is a passionate advocate for peace and human rights. She chose to walk her father’s path, albeit on a different front.

Born in Krugersdorp, South Africa, the mother of three chose her line of work after the bitter experience with an apartheid regime, which rode on a policy of racial segregation, resulting in years of suffering and oppression for black South Africans of the day.

She is not about to stop until the day women are recognised as vital players in bringing peace to the world. This is the work she is currently occupied with at her residence in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States of America.

“What I do mostly is partnering organisations and institutions in Africa with people pursuing similar causes in the USA,” says Naomi. “These could be churches, hospice groups or schools.”

The work has seen her brush shoulders with the high and mighty of the society. Those who have worked with her say she fronts a humble image, unlike the belief that famous people are consumed by pride.

Recently she was in the country and could be found in the remote part of Kenya in North Imenti Constituency, Meru Central District, where she spent time in a week long conference sharing her experiences with women from different parts of the world.

Naomi was inspired to attend the International Peace Initiative (IPI) congress after learning that the meeting would bring women from different parts of the world to engage and share with those who are rural based on how they can participate in peace building activities in Kenya.

“The future resides in partnerships which make human connections with the goal of living in a world that sustains our lives,” says Naomi. “So when I heard about the IPI congress and that it had interests in grassroots women participating and working with partnerships for peace, I definitely wanted to be here.”

It is easy to understand why this meeting inspired a lady who is used to steering her own, as well as a collective course. According to Naomi, the women’s agenda of achieving gender equality is nowhere near expectations largely due to the widening divide between the rich and poor.

Naomi gives the example of her country of birth, South Africa, which she says has the best Constitution addressing gender equality, but which has disappointing figures of grassroots women who do not have access to legal protection.

“When you look at our Parliament and government Ministries, women are very well represented but there are many incidences of those who have been raped but cannot access legal representation,” she observes. Naomi explains: “I don’t think we have reached the level of gender equity that we for instance see in Scandinavian countries.”

She adds: “Clearly regulation is not enough but women must access these laws to be able to improve their lives. We also need to have access to proper funding to businesses as well as launch a serious education campaign about how parity and equity builds nations and sustainable development.”

It is a setback she had wished would be corrected as her country gained self rule and struggled to shed off the ghost of apartheid and racism which had blotted South Africa’s image for about 43 years.

Born 49 years ago, Naomi has an impressive resume which captures several academic achievements, including an MA in International Economic Development from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Economic Development at the University of Kentucky.

She is also a holder of a string of achievements, including her very first one, where she founded the Tutu Foundation for Development and Relief in 1985.

It is said to have helped South African refugees process scholarships from its inception to 1990, where they learnt skills on how to support themselves while in exile as well as preparing them for constructive roles in a free South Africa.

As she grew up, Naomi could not understand why her government could question the humanity of the very citizens it was expected to be protecting, a reality that black South Africans had to live with every passing day.

Unlike the families of other anti-apartheid crusaders, however, she considers her parents to have been more fortunate to be spared the humiliation meted on other activists of the day such as the Nelson Mandela.

Although she still has painful memories about her parents being arrested several times, she is glad that they were not detained for more than 24 hours.

This was not the case with the Mandela and Sisulu famiies, with whose children she shared the pain of being denied proper parenthood.

While the Sisulus were eventually arrested and detained, she is particularly happy to have had an opportunity to spend time and share with them, sitting President Nelson Mandela, about his experiences in detention.

“For black South Africans it was difficult for most of us to understand why the Government would question its citizens’ humanity even in the precincts of one’s home,” says Naomi. Then she poses: “Just imagine what that means when you live with it day by day.”

Perhaps, it is this fickle past that inspired her to step into her father’s shoes as she continues to implore the world to listen to her version of peace building. In her view, the world has a lot to learn from African communities if it is to achieve global peace.

She for instance dismisses the impression often portrayed in Western media of Africa as a continent riddled with war and ethnic strife, and instead underscores the traditional African values of coexistence as the cogs that will steer world peace.

“Our view of community is a very inclusive one and is fundamental. Our cultures teach us that we are human in our connections with one another. I think this is a lesson that we have to offer the rest of the world,” advices Naomi.

She believes that African traditional conflict resolution techniques can actually be integrated into systems of governance if only leaders extolled cultural values by inspiring pride in the African belief system.

As a gender activist who has seen her country sideline women in issues of governance, she believes Kenya is a great country and holds the promise of wide gender mainstreaming in government.

She, however, takes issue with most African governments whose claim of including women in government is only visible when, for instance, a woman sits in the Ministries of Youth and Women Affairs.

“The dream of a United States of Africa has been one that I have always believed in, hoped for and think is possible,” says the mother of three. “However, we have to pressurise our political parties to be representative not only in terms of having women as candidates but also ethnically and economically so that grassroots people are elected into Parliament.”

For a person gifted with such an engaging wit that peppers her conversation, it is easy to imagine that Naomi has not had bad moments in her life.

One of her earliest childhood memories are of when she was being awakened in the middle of the night by her parents following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

She recalls reacting as if one of her kin had died and how her father immediately led the family to church to pray with masses of other grief stricken South Africans. Her worst experience was when both her grandparents died and she was not able to attend their funerals.

Naomi, however, has best moments and one of them is when her children wrote her a letter as a birthday present appreciating her efforts to teach them about the values of humanity and respect for one another, which they promised to hold on to the rest of their lives.

How does she manage to give time to her busy career as well as be there for her family?

As a single mother, Naomi considers herself blessed to have a dutiful first born, 28-year-old Joy, whom she says is often the stand-in-mummy, while she is on duty, although she has many friends who give support at her moment of need.

She, however, says she misses being with her family while she is away on duty but is always confident that the values with which she has brought up Joy and her other two children, 19-year-old Mugi and Mpilo, 14, have prepared them enough to face the world.

She also believes her brother Trevor, who is four years older than her, and her two sisters Theresa, 54, and Mpho (meaning ‘gift’ in Xhosa), 48, are well bred in her parents upbringing to make this world a better place.

During her leisure time when she is either reading books on modern mysteries, swimming or taking a walk, she likes to think of herself as Tutu’s daughter, who will emulate her father but not be him.

It is a stand she nurtured since high school, where there were expectations that Naomi would take a leadership position in the Student Christian Association because her father was a priest. Instead, she got actively involved in sports, singing and drama.

“Being the daughter of Desmond Tutu is something that I have grown up with and has opened many doors for me,” says Naomi who is currently the program coordinator for the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University, USA. “However, I always like people to know that much as I am his daughter, I am not Desmond Tutu.”