Tutu Kicks off Savannah’s Juneteenth Festival

Mayor Otis Johnson is pictured with Naomi Tutu(c), and Vaughnette Goode-Walker, Director of Cultural Diversity, Telfair Museum of Art. Naomi Tutu, daughter of the famed South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, kicked off Savannah’s 2nd Annual Juneteenth Festival celebration with a dynamic speech at Second African Baptist Church on Friday, June 19, 2009.

Tutu spoke of South Africa’s Truth & Reconciliation and its impact on healing her home nation. She also offered the example of South Africa as a formula for healing numerous conflicts between ethnic and religious groups around the world.

Tutu said that the real challenge of South Africa’s commission is not to look for monsters, but to recognize that each of us have the potential to treat each other inhumanely.

“Without the truth we cannot heal, have a shared story, or celebrate the many gifts that we have,” Tutu declared. “The truth will set you free,” she added.

According to Tutu, Juneteenth is a way of sharing stories; “your story and my story.” “We can have real celebrations when they are about overcoming years of hiding and denial,” she noted.

Tutu said that one main reason many ethnic and religious groups continue to fight century after century is the cycle of victimization and an unwillingness to come clean with the truth. She said, “When we are unwilling to hear each others story or ignore some part of history, the wounds from that will never heal.” Tutu made the transition from South Africa dealing with its past to America’s need to deal with its past. She said this country has chosen to pick and choose which history to teach. “We cannot hide the story of slavery, Native Americans, and the internment of Japanese Americans,” she said. “If we do not tell the whole story, it will come back to haunt us,” she continued. Tutu is the founder and chairperson of the Hartford, Connecticut based, Tutu Foundation for Development and Relief in Southern Africa created in 1985. She currently serves as coordinator for the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Tutu earned a Bachelors degree in Economics & French from Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. Later, she earned a Masters Degree in International Economic Development from Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. She is also the mother of three children.

All Juneteenth celebration activities are free and open to the public.

For more information, call 912-790-8880 or go to www.telfair.org. to learn more.