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WITNESS-What I learned photographing the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Published

3 years ago

December 26, 2021

My earliest memories of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu are from newspaper clippings and video recordings of foreign news bulletins smuggled into South Africa by dissenters to evade censorship.

As an activist allied to the African National Congress, the archbishop was banned from the heavily policed media of the white minority government.

In the smuggled tapes, I would see the archbishop looking regal in his mauve robes praying at the funerals of activists and protesters killed by apartheid police, or pleading with people to end the violence.

As a young woman during this tumultuous time in my country, I saw him as a man of God fighting for our freedom, a man pleading with the world to end apartheid, an elder we hoped could one day help restore peace – even if we weren’t always that confident it would ever happen.

Of course, I had no idea then that I would one day be making newspaper clippings of my own about “the Arch”, as he is affectionately known here. As a photojournalist, I got to meet him regularly in the democracy he helped bring about.

Before all that, one memory stands out from 1985. I was nine years old, taking part in an anti-apartheid protest in our neighbourhood on the Cape Flats, an area designated as “non-white” under the segregationist Group Areas Act.

As a family of mostly Indian descent, our movements were restricted under the act and our schools were closed by the government under a state of emergency. The police fired tear gas at us – yes, at a bunch of primary school kids and their teachers! – and my eyes stung with the pain.

But the main protest was up the road at Alexander Sinton High School. My father was a teacher there; my sister a pupil. They staged a sit-in protest demanding schools be opened, and police fired tear gas and dragged students out of their classrooms. My dad and sister were arrested and released hours later.

The next day, Tutu visited the school to comfort the students. A black-and-white photo shows him in his tunic and glasses, a halo of white hair encircling his brow and both of his hands affectionately holding the cheeks of a student.

‘THE HUMAN FAMILY’

On Feb. 11, 1990, I sat on the Grand Parade opposite the City Hall in Cape Town with my family waiting for the arrival of Nelson Mandela, who was to be released from prison after 27 years. The sun had already begun to set when Mandela emerged on the balcony with Archbishop Tutu by his side.

We were overjoyed. We knew the democracy my family had fought for was coming, but the joy was tainted with a sense of loss, of the sacrifices we had made and abuses we had suffered.

Nearly 20 years later, I had my first opportunity to photograph the archbishop at this house. Back then I was too painfully shy to interact with him much, but over the next decade I had the privilege of photographing him many times for Reuters and for his foundation, so I got to know him better.

His courage in defending social justice, even at great cost to himself, always shone through – and not just during apartheid. He often fell out with his erstwhile allies at the ruling ANC over their failures to address the poverty and inequalities that they promised to eradicate.

At St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on April 23, 2014, I photographed Tutu who was still angry and hurt four months after the ANC had tried to bar him from Mandela’s funeral. The party had relented only after a public outcry.

“I will not vote for them,” he said of the ANC.

“I say it with a very sore heart. We dreamt about a society that really made people feel they mattered. You can’t do that in a society where you have people who go to bed hungry, where many of our children still attend classes under trees.”

I was always taken by the way Tutu greeted people equally whether they were heads of state or homeless on the street. He regularly visited a home for the elderly, taking cake and treats for the residents. I looked on as he shook hands with around 40 of them.

When I had to cancel an appointment with him because my son was ill with an appendicitis back in 2016, Tutu had a gift box sent to the hospital.

His wife Leah told me a story over tea about how, when he was young, he gave up his jersey to another child accompanying a blind man, shivering in the cold, knowing he risked a scolding for returning home without it.

That was the Tutu we all knew and loved.

To me, all of these things show the Arch was sincere when he spoke of “Ubuntu”, a Zulu word representing a belief that all human beings are connected by a universal bond that demands sharing and compassion.

“We have been intended to exist as members of one family, the human family,” he once said, adding that when we fail to act accordingly, “we do so at great risk to ourselves”.

Archbishop Tutu took many risks during his life, but that was not one of them.

(Reporting by Sumaya Hisham; Editing by Tim Cocks, Andrew Heavens and William Mallard)

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Langford, Heim lead Rangers to wild 13-8 win over Blue Jays

Published

8 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rookie Wyatt Langford homered, doubled twice and became the first Texas player this season to reach base five times, struggling Jonah Heim delivered a two-run single to break a sixth-inning tie and the Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 13-8 on Tuesday night.

Leody Taveras also had a homer among his three hits for the Rangers.

Langford, who also walked twice, has 12 homers and 25 doubles this season. He is hitting .345 in September.

“I think it’s really important to finish on a strong note,” Langford said. “I’m just going to keep trying to do that.”

Heim was 1-for-34 in September before he lined a single to right field off Tommy Nance (0-2) to score Adolis García and Nathaniel Lowe, giving Texas a 9-7 lead. Heim went to the plate hitting .212 with 53 RBIs after being voted an All-Star starter last season with a career-best 95 RBIs. He added a double in the eighth ahead of Taveras’ homer during a three-run inning.

Texas had 13 hits and left 13 men on. It was the Rangers’ highest-scoring game since a 15-8 win at Oakland on May 7.

Matt Festa (5-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win, giving him a 5-0 record in 13 appearances with the Rangers after being granted free agency by the New York Mets on July 7.

Nathan Eovaldi, a star of Texas’ 2023 run to the franchise’s first World Series championship, had his worst start of the year in what could have been his final home start with the Rangers. Eovaldi, who will be a free agent next season, allowed 11 hits (the most of his two seasons with Texas) and seven runs (tied for the most).

“I felt like early in the game they just had a few hits that found the holes, a few first-pitch base hits,” said Eovaldi, who is vested for a $20 million player option with Texas for 2025. “I think at the end of the day I just need to do a better job of executing my pitches.”

Eovaldi took a 7-3 lead into the fifth inning after the Rangers scored five unearned runs in the fourth. The Jays then scored four runs to knock out Eovaldi after 4 2/3 innings.

Six of the seven runs scored against Toronto starter Chris Bassitt in 3 2/3 innings were unearned. Bassitt had a throwing error during Texas’ two-run third inning.

“We didn’t help ourselves defensively, taking care of the ball to secure some outs,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

The Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a double and two singles, his most hits in a game since having four on Sept. 3. Guerrero is hitting .384 since the All-Star break.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette (calf) was activated and played for the first time since July 19, going 2 for 5 with an RBI. … OF Daulton Varsho (shoulder) was placed on the 10-day injured list and will have rotator cuff surgery … INF Will Wagner (knee inflammation) was placed on the 60-day list.

UP NEXT

Rangers: LHP Chad Bradford (5-3, 3.97 ERA) will pitch Wednesday night’s game on extended five days’ rest after allowing career highs in hits (nine), runs (eight) and home runs (three) in 3 2/3 innings losing at Arizona on Sept. 14.

Blue Jays: RHP Bowden Francis (8-4, 3.50) has had two no-hitters get away in the ninth inning this season, including in his previous start against the New York Mets on Sept. 11. Francis is the first major-leaguer to have that happen since Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1989.

—

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Billie Jean King set to earn another honor with the Congressional Gold Medal

Published

9 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Billie Jean King will become the first individual female athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey announced Tuesday that their bipartisan legislation had passed the House of Representatives and would be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.

The bill to honor King, the tennis Hall of Famer and activist, had already passed unanimously in the Senate.

Sherrill, a Democrat, said in a statement that King’s “lifetime of advocacy and hard work changed the landscape for women and girls on the court, in the classroom, and the workplace.”

The bill was introduced last September on the 50th anniversary of King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes,” still the most-watched tennis match of all-time. The medal, awarded by Congress for distinguished achievements and contributions to society, has previously been given to athletes including baseball players Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, and golfers Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.

King had already been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, says she has “broken barriers, led uncharted paths, and inspired countless people to stand proudly with courage and conviction in the fight for what is right.”

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Account tweaks for young Instagram users ‘minimum’ expected by B.C., David Eby says

Published

9 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

SURREY, B.C. – Premier David Eby says new account control measures for young Instagram users introduced Tuesday by social media giant Meta are the “minimum” expected of tech companies to keep kids safe online.

The parent company of Instagram says users in Canada and elsewhere under 18 will have their accounts set to private by default starting Tuesday, restricting who can send messages, among other parental controls and settings.

Speaking at an unrelated event Tuesday, Eby says the province began talks with social media companies after threatening legislation that would put big tech companies on the hook for “significant potential damages” if they were found negligent in failing to keep kids safe from online predators.

Eby says the case of Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old from Prince George, B.C., who took his own life last year after being targeted by a predator on Snapchat, was “horrific and totally preventable.”

He says social media apps are “nothing special,” and should be held to the same child safety standards as anyone who operates a place that invites young people, whether it’s an amusement park, a playground or an online platform.

In a progress report released Tuesday about the province’s engagement with big tech companies including Google, Meta, TikTok, Spapchat and X, formerly known as Twitter, the provincial government says the companies are implementing changes, including a “trusted flagger” option to quickly remove intimate images.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024

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