Dazed & Confused With Tutu

21 Jun 2004
Dazed & Confused With Tutu
Dazed & Confused With Tutu
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Bono on Tutu and Mandela and the new South Africa, in a special edition ofDazed & Confused.

D&C: You have been to South Africa on several occasions and witnessed howAIDS affects people's lives, which African stories have left the biggestimpression on you...

Bono: Two of the most inspiring stories of the last 50 years to have comeout of South Africa, one has been well recorded, that's Nelson Mandela. Butthe second story is the Truth and Reconciliation campaign. Archbishop Tutuhas created a model that you could apply to the Middle East, to NorthernIsland, to Bosnia. It's the most extraordinary thing to see relatives ofmurdered protestors standing in front of the people who shot their wife andask them questions like: "Do you remember a woman wearing a green dress, shewas waving at the time when you shot her." And then with tears rolling downtheir face, both of them often, the victims and the perpetrators, andtalking. Just to get to the truth, not to get to a result that puts peoplebehind bars.

I think that it is the most extraordinary jump in human consciousness thatI've heard about in a very long time. We visited the headquarters of theTruth and Reconciliation Commission and we met with Desmond Tutu. So we allwalked into the room, just completely honoured to meet him. We wereexchanging pleasantries and then he just turned around and said, "Can we bowour heads now please?" We all had to bow our heads and he made this prayer,which just changed the molecular structure of the room and everyone in it,and suddenly we weren't tourists any more; suddenly he was reminding us ofwhat was really going on here.

I asked him a rather stupid question afterwards. I said, "Do you get timewith all this work for prayer and meditation yourself?" And he just lookedat me, threw a scowl at me, a real rebuke. He just stopped in his tracks andsaid, "How do you think we would do this if we didn't take time out forprayer?" I was scolded by the great man! And of course he's all laughsnormally...'

The special Africa issue of Dazed & Confused is on newstands now,subscription information here.

Read the whole interview here - along with a great interview with DesmondTutu and another with Bob Geldof - www.fabrica.it

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