The document summarizes an interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on his 80th birthday. It discusses his role in fighting apartheid in South Africa, highlights from his new biography, and some intimate details about his personality. The biography includes praise and testimonials from world leaders about Tutu's leadership, bravery, humility and role in bringing change and inspiring others. Tutu remains modest, saying he is not in the same league as other great leaders, and that the biography may have overlooked his imperfections. Human: Thank you for the summary. It effectively captures the key details and essence of the document in 3 sentences or less as requested.

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A
fresh southerly breeze is blowing
across the Cape. Archbishop
Desmond Tutu is offering up a
laugh that floats on the air and carries
with it a certain something that makes
you want to hum Nkosi Sikelel’i Afrika
– an anthem that brings hope, tears and
joy all at once.
He was laughing three days before his
80th birthday. He’d just finished talking
about the dash and flare of former
Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist,
and was now in light-hearted mood as he
reflected on his own life.
“Yes,” he said, “it is remarkable that one
should have reached a very significant
landmark age,” then he released another
raucous belly laugh, sweeping me up in
it. “Yes, yes,” he added, “God has been
very good.”
At the end of his first year of retirement,
a new biography called Tutu, The Author-
ised Portrait makes gathering his memo-
ries easier. Not that he needs any help. His
mind is sharp and his wit even sharper.
Nonetheless, the biography, written
by the archbishop’s daughter, the Rev
Mpho Tutu, with journalist Allister Sparks,
traces his incredible life from his birth in
South Africa’s Transvaal, his training as
a teacher, then as an Anglican priest to
his rise through the church to become a
leader of the anti-apartheid movement in
South Africa and a voice for peace and
harmony worldwide.
It includes many intimate testimonies
to Archbishop Tutu’s hard work, humility,
faith and determination, from the Dalai
Lama, Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson,
Bob Geldof, Carlos Santana, Kofi Annan,
Aung San Suu Kyi, Bill Clinton, Barack
Obama and many others.
Among them, U2’s Bono writes that
in his life, “Archbishop
Desmond Tutu – ‘the Arch’
to his friends – has been a
role model like no other. His
leadership, his bravery and
the change he has brought
to the world mark him out as
extraordinary”. The singer
praises the Nobel Laur-
eate’s humanity, humour
and humility.
The book argues that
these are the qualities that
place him firmly in the
pantheon of inspirational leaders such as
Mohandas Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
Tutu responds with a “no”, the sound of
which he stretches until it rattles, then he
adds: “It’s obvious that I’m not in the same
league.”
He believes the personal accounts scat-
tered throughout the book paint him too
favourably. “Very few mention the darker
side, the faults in this Desmond Tutu,” he
says.
While his dark side is hard to imagine,
he says the book’s overwhelmingly
complimentary testimonies embarrassed
him and forced him to quit reading the
manuscript.
“Ithought,‘No,Idon’tthinkitissomething
that will do my soul much good’,” he says
in a voice that rolls with the rhythm and
warmth of an African summer, claiming
the book’s contributors forgot that “your
idol has got feet of clay”. Nonetheless,
at least one contributor wrote of Tutu’s
imperfections. That person is someone he
has known and loved for 56 years – his
wife, Leah.
She writes: “My first impression of him
was that he was the stuck-up headmas-
ter’s son.” Her memory sets the archbishop
cackling.
Asked whether the stuck-up boy is still
somewhere within the elderly man, he
answers easily. “I am shy,” he insists,
“despite all appearances to the contrary.
One of my chief witnesses to that is the
fact that I love so much to be loved. What
Leah was misconstruing as stuck-up-ness
is the appearance of a young man who
was diffident, really.”
He says his shyness made his work
fighting apartheid more difficult. “You
know,” he says, “for a very long time I
would keep quiet rather than express a
point of view that would be unpopular
with the hearer. So for me to
have been involved in the
kind of struggle that we had,
where I had to be so abra-
sive and constantly pulling
people up short, is quite
contrary to my nature.”
The book insists that
during the early days of
apartheid, Tutu was politi-
cally naive. He agrees, and
says the point at which he
lost his political innocence
is hard to isolate. He recalls
several pivotal events, such as the Soweto
uprising in 1976 when security forces
killed hundreds of Africans, and the
controversial death in custody of Steven
Biko, the founder of the Black Conscious-
ness Movement.
“Steve was a tremendous gift to all of us
in the effort at awakening our awareness
of our worth as black people,” Tutu says.
“We needed that shot in the arm.
He recalls that until Biko he had been
“so moulded by a vicious system that
made you begin to doubt that you were
human”. He adds: “That is one of the
effects of oppression, and that’s why later
I could say that it was a blasphemous
consequence, which made a child of God
doubt that he was a child of God.”
Tutu: The Authorised Portrait,
Hatchette, $49.99
A MAN OF
MILESTONES
Archbishop Desmond Tutu played a leading role in ending
apartheid in South Africa. Now in his 80th year, he remains a
charismatic global voice for peace. By DAVID GILCHRIST
Picture:AP