"They marched in Capetown...and apartheid fell"

"...The time has now come to slow down...to sip Roiboos tea with my beloved wife in the afternoons...to watch cricket..to travel to visit my children and grandchildren...rather than to conferences and conventions and university campuses."
Most Reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu - is a man who needs no introduction. Listening to him announcing his retirement from public life last Thursday, 7th October 2010, on his 79th birthday, my mind went back to January 2008. Kenya was burning. And quite literary so. Apparently no one in Kenya at the time had enough credibility to even attempt to bring the two political camps, each claiming victory, to the negotiation table.
I remember very well, how the presence of Archbishop Tutu in Nairobi, helped to raise the hopes many Kenyans, that at last the politicians would start contemplating negotiations; urged on by the Archbishop.

Mandela and Desmond Tutu

At the Copenhagen climate-change talks, Archbishop Tutu spoke very passionately, about the need for justice; the need to get 'the real deal'.



During the opening ceremony for the World Cup in South Africa, the way he charged up the crowds, made me truly feel proud to be an African. His retirement now means that we will; see less of him in the press...i will surely miss his wonderfully infectious giggles!