Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation

We recently welcomed the inaugural Living Rights Festival to DLTLF! This community-based festival featured a diverse range of events designed to engage various interests. Together, we reflected on the global challenges to living rights posed by the economically powerful. 🌍 The foundation co-hosted the launch of Professor Uma Dhupella-Mesthrie's book, “Ghandi’s African Legacy: Phoenix Settlement 1904-2024,” along with a thought-provoking panel discussion on “Holding the Powerful to Account in Africa,” led by Professor Fred Hendricks and Nontando Ngamlana. 📔🎙️ 📸Living Rights Festival #humanfirst #livingrights #livingrightsfestival #freepalestine #notogenocide

Tickets are live! Join us as we ‘Bear Witness’ for our International Peace Lecture ✌🏽💜 With phase one of our tickets available, we’re welcoming keynote speakers from Nobel Peace winners like renowned journalist Maria Ressa ✍️ Justice seeker, human rights lawyer & civil society leader Oleksandra Matviichuk 👩⚖️ plus the incredible writer and broadcast journalist Yousra Elbagir 😍 As they grace the stage and help us celebrate 40 years since Archbishop Tutu won his Nobel Prize and reflect on 30 years of our democracy, it will be a night to remember. Ticket link is in our bio. 📅 23 November 2024 📍 CTICC, Cape Town #PeaceLecture2024 #CapeTown #DesmondTutuLegacy #40YearsNobelPrize #30YearsFreedom #SaveTheDate #BearingWitness

Our final speaker joining the Peace Lecture is Sky News Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir ✍️😍 With credentials that include being the former international correspondent for Vice News Tonight on HBO, a foreign news reporter for Channel 4 News in the UK, and being a filmmaker, she’s just getting started. As a broadcast journalist and writer, she’s covered major events across the continent, most notably her reports from the frontlines of Sudan’s war that have uncovered the scale of devastation in the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. Bringing stories from civil unrest, natural disasters, and conflict to the fore, she will be in dialogue with Oleksandra and Maria to Bear Witness on 23 November. Stay tuned for tickets dropping this afternoon. 📅 23 November 2024 📍 CTICC, Cape Town #PeaceLecture2024 #CapeTown #DesmondTutuLegacy#40YearsNobelPrize #30YearsFreedom #SaveTheDate#BearingWitness

Next on our list of keynote speakers for the Peace Lecture is Oleksandra Matviichuk. As a revered human rights lawyer by day and civil society leader at all times, she’s been named of TIME’s most 100 Influential people in 2023 💜😌 Not only was she the first Ukrainian to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, but she also heads up the Center for Civil Liberties as the Chairwoman, that exists to protect human rights and establish democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. By using her platform to model a path to international accountability for war crimes, her organisation is developing legislative changes and conducting educational activities for the youth. Giving testimony and seeking justice through her work, watch Oleksandra Bear Witness on 23 November. Stay tuned for phase one tickets that drop this Friday! 📅 23 November 2024 📍 CTICC, Cape Town #PeaceLecture2024 #CapeTown #DesmondTutuLegacy#40YearsNobelPrize #30YearsFreedom #SaveTheDate#BearingWitness

Very few people can say they’re leading the fight for press freedom in an entire country so allow us to introduce a woman who can – our first keynote speaker for this year’s International Peace Lecture – Maria Ressa 💁🏽♀️ As the co-founder and CEO of Philippines publication Rappler, she’s spearheaded the top digital only news site in the country. Maria is also the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner for her work as an investigative reporter who has uncovered countless stories over 37 years 😌 With numerous accolades under her belt, she’s the inspiration behind the Sundance Film Festival Documentary ‘A Thousand Cuts’ too. In lieu of her winning the Nobel prize for her "efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace," who better to get us to reflect and Bear Witness. As the first speaker to join us at this year’s Peace Lecture, save the date for 23 November for a closer look at the world of journalism from her point of view. Tickets go live on Friday! 📅 23 November 2024 📍 CTICC, Cape Town #PeaceLecture2024 #CapeTown #DesmondTutuLegacy #40YearsNobelPrize #30YearsFreedom #SaveTheDate #BearingWitness

On October 17th, we hosted an inspiring Tutu Courageous Leadership Workshop in Johannesburg, where leaders and facilitators from Ingelosi Foundation, Kids Haven, EgoliSquash Youth Empowerment, and Innovation Of Excellence came together to learn, grow, and drive positive change. One participant shared, “A big thank you for the inspiring workshop last Thursday. It had a big impact, and I look forward to diving into it further and adding it to my facilitation toolbox to drive social impact in the youth sector further.” The energy and commitment to empowering communities were truly remarkable. #TheTutuLegacy #LeadingforHumanity #TutuCourse #CirclesofCourage #Democracy #CivicsEducation #ActiveCitizenship

🌍✨ It was an honour to host a group of international students at the Truth To Power Exhibition, guided by Siviwe from @townshiptourscapetown! Through learning about South Africa's past and the profound legacy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, students explored themes of justice, resilience, and unity. Engaging with future leaders and critical thinkers from around the world is a powerful reminder of education’s role in inspiring positive social change. For more information, feel free to reach out: 📞 021 552 7524 📧 exhibition@tutu.org.za #TruthToPowerExhibition #TutuLegacyFoundation #EducationForChange #InspiringTheFuture #Tutu

Our 14th International Peace Lecture is back! This year’s theme is about ‘Bearing Witness’. Since the beginning of time, few practices have been at the pinnacle of truth-telling and testimony of our human nature as much as journalism, the arts and international law. In these, we bear witness. To courageous writers who uncover stories, investigate invisible truths and testify in print. To artists who express themselves through music and poetry, making their craft a sign of the times. To international lawyers who seek how injustice and freedom exist alongside one another across borders. While we reflect on 30 years of freedom in South Africa and celebrate 40 years since Archbishop Desmond Tutu took home his Nobel Peace Prize, we will ‘Bear Witness’ with an esteemed list of speakers and performers who will share their perspective. Join us on Saturday November 23, at the CTICC in Cape Town, as we mark the occasion in style. Stay tuned to our page for more details dropping soon. #PeaceLecture2024 #CapeTown #DesmondTutuLegacy #40YearsNobelPrize #30YearsFreedom #SaveTheDate #BearingWitness

On Wednesday, 9 October, our CEO @janet_jobson (insta: @janet.at.tutu) had the privilege of leading this year’s Year Beyond Academy students through the powerful Truth to Power exhibition. These incredible young leaders are making a difference across the Western Cape (and even Gqeberha!) by supporting children through after-school programs. Sharing the legacy and inspiration of the Arch with them was truly special. Here’s what some of the Year Beyond Academy students had to say about the experience: ✨ “It sparked meaningful conversations and the exhibition’s emotional resonance stayed with me long after I left. It was an important reminder of our collective responsibility. Thank you for taking us to that special place 🌸” ✨ “It was an amazing opportunity, and not many of us are awarded such, so thank you. Learning about leaders who were brave and did hard things, even in the face of adversity, was truly inspiring. It ties in perfectly with what we’ve been focusing on in this last block. DO IT AGAIN!!!” ✨ “It raised awareness about the importance of being a servant leader, with powerful quotes like: ‘There can be no future unless there is peace. There can be no peace unless there is reconciliation.’” Thank you to these future leaders for sharing their reflections with us! #YearBeyondAcademy #TruthToPower #ServantLeadership #TheTutuLegacy #Inspiration #YouthLeadership #WesternCapeYouth #GqeberhaYouth #LegacyOfPeace

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants – Desmond Tutu (1931 - 2021)   Today, we reflect on the past year’s intense pain, honouring the civilian lives lost and renewing our commitment to peace with justice. This moment calls us to remember leaders like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who stood in solidarity with Palestinians and warned of the dangers of dehumanisation. He would have turned 93 today.   In 2014, one of his last interviews on this topic, Archbishop Tutu responded to a question about how healing between Israelis and Palestinians could happen. This is Tutu’s response, edited for length; pls see the full interview below.   “One can very well understand concerns about self-preservation with Israelis feeling they are in a hostile environment.   What I have been feeling, especially in recent times, is an anguish at what the Israelis are doing to themselves. I mean what they are doing in Gaza, even in responding to the provocations by Hamas, the response, the reaction, has been abominable... They have placed the Gazan people within the largest open prison, so almost all of them would want to do anything to get out of that.   Through the [Truth & Reconciliation Commission] we saw what dehumanising laws did to the dehumaniser. I am deeply concerned for what the Israelis are doing to themselves. When they have their people sitting in front of television sets, watching what their army are doing to others & cheering them on. You realise that in dehumanising others, you dehumanise yourself. And it's not a slogan. It just is real.   I would hope that the Israelis would get a leader who said: We have been given a precious treasure, our Torah, which has spoken about what we should be as the chosen people. And dear people of God, we are moving many, many miles away from what God wants us to be.    An Israel that had said that would be amazed at what the world would be wanting to do to preserve them. Because they are a special people. There is no running away from that. But they may have forgotten what their own religious leaders have kept saying to them.    ...they gave the world an incredible gift: the knowledge of a God who has a bias. And if they continue this way, down the line, they are going to come a cropper, because the God they gave us has notoriously been a God biased in favour of the weak, the downtrodden, & the despised.”   It ends with his daughter, Mpho Tutu van Furth: “..[M]aking peace requires incredible courage. And I don't see really courageous leaders on either side who have the courage to… drag their communities kicking and screaming to the peace table. Of course, forgiveness has a role, but forgiveness in that kind of a context always requires a respectful auditor. A respectful person to hear the story, somebody who's not going to say.. who's hurt is bigger, because hurt is hurt, right?"   Desmond Tutu was no bystander. Thank you for your courage, moral convictions & humanity. Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation The Elders Foundation