Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution
- Book Review,
by Desmond Mpilo Tutu
From Publishers Weekly
This is a collection of miscellany-speeches, letters, sermons, interview extracts-by Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tuto, who since 1976 has spoken out against apartheid and for human rights. "The Bible and the church predate Marxism and the ANC by several centuries," we read here in his letter to rabidly anticommunist South African President P.W. Botha in 1988, and indeed, Tutu's deep faith and biblical grounding infuse his communications. His denunciation of apartheid, especially in testimony to a government commission investigating church activists, has an imperturbable impact ("human beings are created in the image and likeness of God"). After the 1990 lifting of the ban on political powers, Tutu's role receded, but he has remained a voice of conscience, especially when criticizing the "culture of violence," which he stresses cannot be blamed solely on apartheid. While this book is mainly for browsing, the sections are linked by a useful narrative that explains their historical context. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This collection of sermons, speeches, and writings of the Archbishop of Capetown, one of the foremost Christian leaders of the struggle against apartheid, provides a history of nearly two decades of the struggle from a Christian perspective. Tutu's unfaltering conviction that apartheid would be defeated because it was wrong, his firm belief that God is on the side of the oppressed, and his commitment to a nonracial struggle come through in periods of apparent defeat as well as in times of success. Editor Allen has provided a useful chronology and, with each selection, gives the specific historical context. This enables the reader with little knowledge of South Africa to understand the context and thus the force and skill of the message. The collection begins with a letter to Prime Minister John Vorster in May 1976, warning of the possibility of violence in reaction to the violence of apartheid. Scarcely more than a month later such violence erupted in Soweto. It ends with Tutu's May 9, 1994 speech, following the first post-apartheid elections. There is little overlap with previous collections of Tutu's sermons (Crying in the Wilderness, Eerdmans, 1982, and Hope and Suffering, Eerdmans, 1983). An excellent volume for all collections.--Maidel Cason, Univ. of Delaware Lib., NewarkCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
While Nelson Mandela and other political leaders were silenced in prison, Archbishop Tutu was a charismatic public figure at the forefront of the antiapartheid struggle. This collection of his speeches, letters, and sermons--from the time of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, through the long years of repression and defiance, up to the triumph of the democratic election--serves as an immediate contemporary history of South Africa. Tutu's media secretary, John Allen, provides a general historical introduction and a connecting narrative that places the individual pieces in dramatic context. Eloquent, wise, funny, colloquial, Tutu defends his liberation theology with wit and reverence, flaying the absurdities of "white civilization," while drawing on the Scriptures and Christian tradition for his moral authority. His Nobel Peace Prize speech is here; so is his call for sanctions against his country; and his funeral orations; and always, his plea for peace talks: "Mr. de Klerk, if you know really what is good for you, join us!" Hazel Rochman
From Kirkus Reviews
This chronologically arranged collection of speeches, writings, and letters by Nobelist Desmond Tutu, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, offers some gripping primary source material from the battle against apartheid. In the first selection of the volume, a letter dated May 6, 1976, Tutu, then dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg, asks Prime Minister John Vorster, ``How long can a people, do you think, bear such blatant injustice and suffering?'' The book ends with a prayer given by Tutu at Nelson Mandela's inauguration as the South African president on May 10, 1994. What emerges is a documentary history (albeit in only one voice) of the protracted death of apartheid and an affirmation of nonracial democracy by a man whose political acts are emphatically motivated by his Christian faith. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"Accessible and absorbing."--San Francisco Chronicle
"The Rainbow People Of God shows Tutu to be a gifted warrior."--USA Today
"Clear, succinct and exciting"--The Washington Post
"Impressive . . .What comes across forcefully is what Tutu calls 'the centrality of the spiritual."--The Christian Science Monitor
"[Tutu's writings] take on the fresh power of conviction and example and remind us that moral authority ultimately depends on a vision that is universal."--Chicago Tribune
Review
"Accessible and absorbing."--San Francisco Chronicle
"The Rainbow People Of God shows Tutu to be a gifted warrior."--USA Today
"Clear, succinct and exciting"--The Washington Post
"Impressive . . .What comes across forcefully is what Tutu calls 'the centrality of the spiritual."--The Christian Science Monitor
"[Tutu's writings] take on the fresh power of conviction and example and remind us that moral authority ultimately depends on a vision that is universal."--Chicago Tribune
From the Publisher
The Rainbow People Of God traces South Africa's glorious victory over apartheid in the writings and speeches of one its central figures, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. From the graveside of Steven Biko to the triumphant inauguration of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa, Tutu's words and presence helped shape events and led South Africa toward justice and freedom. This astonishing tapestry of narrative is not only a valuable historical document of those significant events, but it also showcases the unique sense of spirit of one of the foremost spiritual leaders in the world. Tested through the greatest adversity, these writings will endure for generations to come by their truly powerful combination of compassion and strength. "Accessible and absorbing."--San Francisco Chronicle"The Rainbow People Of God shows Tutu to be a gifted warrior."--USA Today"Clear, succinct and exciting"--The Washington Post"Impressive . . .What comes across forcefully is what Tutu calls 'the centrality of the spiritual."--The Christian Science Monitor"[Tutu's writings] take on the fresh power of conviction and example and remind us that moral authority ultimately depends on a vision that is universal."--Chicago Tribune
From the Inside Flap
The Rainbow People Of God traces South Africa's glorious victory over apartheid in the writings and speeches of one its central figures, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. From the graveside of Steven Biko to the triumphant inauguration of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa, Tutu's words and presence helped shape events and led South Africa toward justice and freedom. This astonishing tapestry of narrative is not only a valuable historical document of those significant events, but it also showcases the unique sense of spirit of one of the foremost spiritual leaders in the world. Tested through the greatest adversity, these writings will endure for generations to come by their truly powerful combination of compassion and strength.
From the Back Cover
"Accessible and absorbing."--San Francisco Chronicle"The Rainbow People Of God shows Tutu to be a gifted warrior."--USA Today"Clear, succinct and exciting"--The Washington Post"Impressive . . .What comes across forcefully is what Tutu calls 'the centrality of the spiritual."--The Christian Science Monitor"[Tutu's writings] take on the fresh power of conviction and example and remind us that moral authority ultimately depends on a vision that is universal."--Chicago Tribune
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