Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Prize winner who fought apartheid and helped shape South Africa's multiracial future.
On the island
Eight records
We Are the WorldFavourite
That was incredible because uh listening to all those children singing made you say it's it's beautiful to be human.
This was a great favorite just after the war, I mean the Second World War, and and we used to jive, and this is tremendous.
Alicia de Larrocha (piano), London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor)
When I listen to this, two things. How is it possible that such incredible beauty could come from one man? … He was deaf. And because I'm disabled to some extent too. It's such a great inspiration and the piano concerto. I love playing Beethoven real loud.
It was played when I … was made bishop in nineteen seventy six. Ever since, whenever there's been an important occasion in my life, I've wanted it played.
Academy and Chorus of Saint Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (conductor)
Whenever I drove from my office in town going to Soweto, I would have a deck playing … often these solemn pieces of music were just the right mood for the kind of situation we were in.
Ulster Orchestra, Yan Pascal Tortelier (conductor)
I just love this. It sounds almost African in its repetitiveness.
A choir … that's been playing, singing at many of the things that were important in my life … This is a piece in Khorsa, my home language. … Father, forgive me.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:13You've spent a lifetime fighting the evil of apartheid, and this year in April, as we all know, black South Africans queued up to vote in their country's first democratic elections. Was that day a miracle for you, or was it something you had always known would happen?
No words anywhere in the world would ever be able to describe adequately how we all felt … on that day. … It was a miracle.
Presenter asks
6:21How much has life changed for you now that the major part of the battle is won? On May the ninth you stood on the balcony of the City Hall in Cape Town and introduced President Mandela. Were you not [handing] over the mantle?
I was hoping, hey, now take over, man, and let's be able to do most of the kind of things that one should be doing. But we've got to be very careful that we don't give the people the impression that the things we were doing were not part of what it means to be a Christian. … people think that South Africans now have a formula. Come to Liberia. … They think you can perform the miracles.
The keepsakes
The luxury
May I may I tea. An ice cream making machine. and one that produces my favorite rum raisin.
Presenter asks
How aware were you as a small boy and then as a teenager that you weren't regarded as equal by the whites? What were your first impressions of that?
We were living in a town called Fenterstop … and I recall on one occasion going past a school for white children … black children scavenging in the waste bins … picking perfectly clean sandwiches and fruit which the white kids had thrown away … free school feeding which they didn't want. … And here were most of the black kids whose parents couldn't afford, who didn't have free school feeding … Maybe you didn't know then … that this thing was etching itself on your consciousness.
Presenter asks
16:28You turned to the priesthood at about 25. You've described it as being 'grabbed by the scruff of the neck'. Was that the turning point?
when I abandoned teaching, I didn't go into the priesthood because I had a high sense that God was calling me. It is only much later that you realized … there are times when … it is almost like God grabbing you by the scruff of the neck and saying, That is what you are going to do, whether you like it or not.
Presenter asks
24:09How much did you therefore fear for your own life and those of your family?
I don't think you spend a great deal of time being overwrought … You are aware that you are in a struggle and there are going to be casualties. … there were death threats … you get scared, but you have to say, Well, if I am going to be killed … I'm doing your work, and you jolly well are going to have to look after me if you don't. Tough luck.
Presenter asks
30:14On a personal level, there is a lot of the showman in you, isn't there? You enjoy being up front, being popular.
I love being loved. And one of the most traumatic things for me was to be the ogre, the man most white South Africans love to hate. It was a traumatic thing.
“Most of the time one had this as an article of faith. … The issue is not in doubt. If God be for us, who can be against us? But there were times when you had to hold on to that belief by the very skin of your teeth.”
“It's like when you are in love. Suddenly this flower, which was beautiful before … is exquisite now. There is a texture in the atmosphere, you can even smell. It is different to be free. … I'm a human being. And this has been recognized. I have a dignity. It's just fantastic.”
“Your child picks up a telephone. And it's a call meant for you. … they would say, We're going to kill your father … you'd see your child almost seize up. And that has made me very, very angry.”