Daughter of Famous Man Carved her own Niche
Written by Katrina Daniel Monday, August 22 2011
Snapshot: Nontombi Naomi Tutu, human rights activist
When your father is one of the most well respected, beloved, and honored men in the world, as his daughter you have two choices: You can run and hide from the spotlight or you can build on your father’s dream, using it to create your own platform to make the world a better place.
That is what Nontombi Naomi Tutu did, picking up the gauntlet passed down from her father and creating her own considerable niche in the world of activism.
Naomi Tutu is the third child of the revered South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and his wife Nomalizo. The archbishop came to world attention for his espousal of anti-apartheid in the 1980s. He is the winner of numerous prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize.
Naomi Tutu inherited her father’s drive, dedication, and charm. She earned her bachelor’s in economics and French from Berea College and her master’s in international economic development from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Economic Development from the University of Kentucky. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universal Orthodox College of Ogun State, Nigeria, in 1985.
She is currently working on her doctorate in at the London School of Economics, while teaching at the School of Education at the University of Connecticut.
And in her spare time – a joke, really – Tutu is program coordinator for the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University.
Womenetics: When people first meet you and ask what you do, what do you tell them?
Naomi Tutu: I say I am a human rights activist who tries to educate people about our connections as human beings. That is the short answer. If people want to know how I do my work, I then describe ways that I have chosen to be an activist. In particular I offer diversity training for organizations interested in building communities that recognize and celebrate the varied gifts that people bring. In addition I lead truth and reconciliation workshops for groups trying to find innovative ways of dealing with conflict and educational and partnership-building trips building trips to South Africa. Finally, I speak to various groups about our shared humanity and how oppression anywhere impacts us all.
Womenetics: Everyone asks you how you deal with the invariable, “The daughter of Desmond Tutu” comments. How do you respond?
Tutu: I always say that being the daughter of Desmond Tutu comes with costs and benefits. In fact, at one point, Adrienne Belafonte Bissemeyer and I talked about starting a “daughter of” club to offer one another support and laughs. I am very clear that I did nothing to be my parents’ daughter; it is just a biological happenstance if you like. However, I am now their daughter, and I have accepted both the costs and benefits that this brings.
Womenetics: Being the daughter of a world famous activist has worked both for and against you? How? What challenges have you faced? And, who influenced you more, your mother or your father?
Tutu: One of the benefits clearly is that being Naomi Tutu has opened doors for me that might not have opened if my last name was Ngomane, for instance. I think that people have been willing to at least give me a hearing because of my last name. One of the major challenges has definitely been having people thinking that I am a mini-Desmond; that I have exactly the same thoughts, positions and goals as my father.
The other is, specifically during apartheid in South Africa, knowing that my father was so hated by so many white South Africans and receiving, as a teenager, death threats against him. I think they have influenced me in different ways. From my mother I have taken the comfort with being my own person, with my own dreams and gifts that have nothing to do with my parents.
My mother was always very clear that as much as she loves my father, she is not simply a Desmond appendage and that none of us children should be viewed as that either. From my father I think I have received the belief and comfort with being a spokesperson for issues for which I am passionate.
Womenetics: Your work now revolves around human rights, gender, race, and growing up in apartheid South Africa. Do you sometimes want to break away from these issues of your birthright, and do something completely different, and if so, what would that be?
Tutu: Actually, the issues I focus on in my work are the ones I am most passionate about. I tell people that I am actually a very selfish activist. As a woman of color, issues of race and gender impact me every day of my life. As the mother of children of color and two young women, my dreams for a world free of racism and sexism is a dream for my children. So those passions come naturally to me. If I were not a human rights activist, I think I would be a comedian. I love stand-up comedy, especially the type that educates as it entertains. I think I would like to be a stand-up comedian or a contributor to something like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report
Womenetics: Since you are so closely identified with your father tell us, who is Nontombi Naomi Tutu?
Tutu: I am someone who knows that she has lived a very rich life. I am a person who has lived in a situation of terrible oppression and through that has been taught how much we all lose when a person or a group is diminished or oppressed. I am a woman who has been impacted by a huge range of people, starting with my grandmothers and my parents, then people in the struggle against apartheid like Emma Mashinini, Winnie Mandela, Malusi Mpumlwana, Tom Manthata, Trevor Huddleston, and many others.
I am a woman who is completely passionate about freedom and democracy, about the rights of all people to be safe, fed, educated, and free. I am a mother of three who dreams of a world in which my children can live fully their dreams and their gifts. I am someone who loves to speak and inspire others and also loves to be in the quiet place of my room, my own little sanctuary. I guess I am like most people, a mixture of strengths and weaknesses, dreams and fears, positives and negatives.
Womenetics: Please tell us about Join My Village, for which you are the ambassador. What are the expectations?
Tutu: Join My Village is an innovative, online social change initiative that seeks to empower women and girls in the developing world. It is facilitated by the humanitarian organization CARE with financial support from General Mills and Merck.
It’s simple. You visit the website, click, and General Mills and Merck commit resources that give women and girls in developing countries a new chance. Girls are given the chance to go to school, and women are enabled to start or expand their businesses. The beauty of it is that people around the world are able to be educated about the struggles and achievements of women and girls in countries like Malawi, while at the same time helping these same women and girls expand their horizons.
Womenetics: If you had one single, simple message to impart, what would that be?
Tutu: I think it would be that we are all in this together. We are inhabitants of this glorious planet, and we have a responsibility to it and to one another. If I could cheat and add a second part to this it would be that our diversity of cultures, religions, languages, races, and ethnicities is actually what makes our world so wonderful. We need to recognize diversity as our strength and beauty, not as something to divide us.
Katrina Daniel is an award-winning journalist and broadcast reporter/anchor. She has worked in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and as a national correspondent for several networks. She commutes between Miami and the Carolinas, writing for magazines and news organizations. She lives with one horse, four dogs, and a cat.
