By Jenni Evans.
The voice of the rebel Anglican cleric Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has been silent for a year, ever since his death on the Day of Goodwill, 2021.
In a joint statement announcing the official end of the mourning period, the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said that had he been alive this year, he would have had a lot to say.
“Archbishop Tutu occupied a unique position (organically, without being appointed or elected, guided by his faith) as a global moral conscience and human role model. We have been acutely conscious of his silence this year,” read a joint tribute from the trust and the foundation.
“Were he still here, he’d have helped us understand, from an interconnected human family perspective, where we should stand in this year of war in Europe, accelerating climate calamity, energy crisis – and increasing social and political bankruptcy at home.”
They called his “pearls of wisdom” the “Archbishop’s Heirloom to Humanity”.
Tutu’s rejection of an extravagant funeral, and the simple pine coffin in which he was buried, was regarded as a searing indictment of extravagant funeral practices.
The trust and the foundation plan to move forward in protecting his work and legacy through a new global digital journey called the Heirloom Project.
It will be a single-site, accessible and usable global digital archive called “The Heirloom Project”, which will eulogise Tutu in collaboration with South African and international universities associated with him.
The details will be announced in the new year.
“The objective is to harness the full body of his teaching, in order to be able to contribute meaningfully to the endeavours of those he left behind and are still to come…”
The intention is to gather an archive of easily searchable and accessible speeches, interviews, articles, photographs, and television footage.
In Cape Town, an extensive exhibition of found footage and memorabilia has already gone on display at The Granary.
“On behalf of Mrs Leah Tutu, we very gratefully acknowledge the loving support of family and friends across South Africa and the world throughout the mourning period,” the statement read.