Farewell Archbishop Tutu

Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has announced that he is withdrawing from public life.

The former archbishop played a prominent role in South Africa's struggle against the whites-only apartheid system.

After his 79th birthday in October, he stated that he would reduce his workload to one day a week until the end of February 2011 before retiring.

That work would be devoted to The Elders, a group appointed by former President Nelson Mandela to tackle the world's most pressing problems.

During the 27 years that Mr Mandela was in prison, Archbishop Tutu spoke out against apartheid - and won the Nobel peace prize in 1984 for his efforts.

He was chosen by Mr Mandela to chair South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and investigate the crimes committed by all sides during the apartheid regime.

"My involvement with the Elders and Nobel Laureate Group will continue, as will my support for the development of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town.

"But I will step down from my positions at the University of the Western Cape, the UN Advisory Committee on the Prevention of Genocide, among others, will be reviewing the list of organisations in which I am involved as Patron, and will no longer be available for media interviews.

"As Madiba [Nelson Mandela] said on his retirement: Don’t call me; I’ll call you.

"I have been very, very fortunate to have been given opportunities to contribute in a small way to develop our new, democratic, exhilarating and sometimes exasperating nation," he said. "The time has come to slow down.

"I retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996. Then I retired again, after completion of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. But my mission determined that I continue to work, and my schedule has grown increasingly punishing over the years.

"Instead of growing old gracefully, at home with my family – reading and writing and praying and thinking – too much of my time has been spent at airports and in hotels."

Archbishop Tutu spoke at several events during the recent football World Cup in South Africa.  One of his last public statements, noted by the press on June 16, therefore, might just be: “The vuvuzela is part of our culture. We cannot separate them from the soccer fever.”

Meanwhile, the English clubs have banned the South African cultural icon from all British football stadiums in the upcoming season leaving the work of world vuvuzela freedom to others; perhaps even, future generations?