Listening to the silent majority

[88]

Upon his return from the United States, the Archbishop talked to editor Khulu Sibija of the (black) City Press. I made an effort to understand the way Tutu's brain works. He blandly stated that he had not been accused as yet by the oppressed, the poor and the hungry for his political actions. Perhaps Tutu is deaf, blind or both. No wonder he says these things to the City Press with a piously straight face, because he flatly refuses to meet the oppressed, the poor and the hungry. The members of

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the Western Cape Council of Churches who intended to share with him sincere criticism on his behaviour overseas are simply ignored and brushed aside by the prelate from Bishopscourt. Perhaps, colleague Khulu Sibiya should venture out to the Cape and investigate on the spot what black people are thinking and feeling in regard to the man to whom he offers half a page in his paper to ventilate his one-sided point of view. Let Sibiya offer the same amount of space to the churchmen from the heart of the black townships in the Cape, who have not as yet been discovered by a Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway.

‘I belong with the oppressed,’ stated the Archbishop to the City Press and the remark passed by without comment. He further said that the government is doing all it can ‘to vilify, denigrate and discredit me. In a sense, their attitude is a very good barometer of the effectiveness of what we are doing.’ I, for one, fail to understand the endless patience and forbearance of the Pretoria government with the bishop from Cape Town. Why should he be spared while others who advocate the same policies in writing or by word of mouth have to reckon with existing security laws? The government must have sound reasons unknown to the public. However, sometimes one wishes that the modern Afrikaner would rediscover some of the courage for which his forebears gained respect and reverence from the entire world.

When Khulu Sibiya asked the Archbishop who gave him a mandate to become the super salesman of sanctions abroad he innocently replied, ‘I have never said that I am speaking for other people when I call for sanctions, not even my church. It is my own opinion. Nor have I ever been repudiated by credible leaders.’ No, because the credible leaders whom I had the pleasure of meeting, asked me kindly to turn off my tape recorder the moment the subject of the Archbishop turned up. Of course, I cannot divulge what was said, but I heard enough from the poor, the man in the street, the Black Achievers or blacks in general, to know that Desmond Tutu is living in Fairyland when he says to Khulu Sibiya,^67. ‘I know the people are with me.’ One wonders how Tutu processes the messages his senses send to his brain into perceptions about the outside world. Many close their minds to information, especially when data contradict already shaped opinions or convictions. First of all, the senses supply information about ourselves. They monitor the positions of the

67. City Press, May 28, 1989

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limbs, the balance of our bodies and, through pain, signal injury or illness. However, almost nothing of our day-by-day or second-by-second perceptions, that allow us to survive in a dangerous world, are actually reaching consciousness. The mind closes itself off from what we subconsciously prefer not to know and not to be aware of.

Especially those who work in areas of influence tend to collect ‘information’ that suits their purpose. Tutu and his associates seem to be geniuses at doing just that. They accummulate and propagate ‘information’ about South Africa that is readily being accepted by foreign audiences as the gospel truth, because inter alia Tutu is a man of the cloth representing the dignity and fame of an internationally respected Church. Who wouldn't be impressed with such a masquerade of the high office of the Archbishop of Cape Town? The result is just a dialogue of the deaf, where the programmed minds of overseas audiences^68. readily accept an appeal for sanctions by the self-appointed envoys of some of South Africa's churches.

Academic psychology admits that a person's true intentions comprise one of the most difficult concepts to understand, as well as to discuss. Most behaviourism is commonly explained by intentions. An intention seems to characterize the mind. The forming of an intention, like Tutu's intention to assist in the liberation of blacks in South Africa, seems to imply free will, and even the ability to choose and select, especially in the case of mature people.

68. The reader will remember the story of the Dutch television audience readily accepting the lie that a wall was being built around Soweto to keep blacks in