- 24 min documentary episode for the series, “Til Death us do Part”
On Saturday, 2nd July 2005 Archbishop Desmond Tutu & his wife Leah, celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary at the Holy Cross Church in Orlando, Soweto.
In front of their children, grand-children, family & friends – the retired Anglican archbishop and his spouse exchanged rings and renewed their vows in a service conducted by their youngest daughter, the Reverend Mpho Tutu.
For the couple - who grew up and got married in the township of Munsieville outside Krugersdorp over fifty years ago - it truly was a crowning moment.
“I had to borrow the money to get the Labola – fortunately I borrowed it from a religious community – they couldn’t say they wanted to have a share in her”, quips Desmond with his characteristic sense of humour.
He recalls: “We didn’t have a house – we lived in a back-yard – a garage – the garage was our bedroom and our lounge & we had a small little room as a kitchen”.
For Leah too, it was a time of “small beginnings”.
”When we struggled for worldly goods it was tough – but I didn’t blame him because I had married a poor man. I wasn’t expecting to get things from him – I was expecting to work and get things for ourselves.”
For Leah, the toughest time - that really put their marriage to the test - was after they had established themselves as a family, living happily away from Apartheid-oppression, in London. Desmond broke the news that they were going back to South Africa.
“If there’s anything that almost broke our marriage it was his agreeing to come back to South Africa to be Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral.
We had just bought a house in London – the first house we ever owned & our children were established at good schools, and I thought, “hey man, are you mad”?
Oh we argued a lot about this.”
For their son & eldest child Trevor, returning to apartheid-South Africa came as a rude shock:
”I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the SA to which I came back – from being an upper-middle class kid attending one of the more expensive schools in – one of the more expensive “gin & jag” villages in the UK - to come back to being not even a second-class citizen – third or fourth-class would more aptly cover it.”
Back in South Africa – with Desmond spearheading the church’s struggle against Apartheid – it was a difficult time. For Desmond, the worst was when “the system” targeted his family as a way of getting at him.
“The kind of thing where somebody makes a phone-call threatening to kill me. Now, he hears that the person answering the phone is a child and you’d have thought they would say “call your father or your mother” and they wouldn’t . They would just say: – “we are going to kill your father & tell him”. That was almost unforgivable. I would say that the family paid a very heavy price – ja”
More recently, the family stared death in the face when Desmond was diagnosed with prostate-cancer. The couple were overseas at the time – Leah recovering from surgery to her knee.
“We were in America – and I thought “he’s going” … and then I realized just what life would be without him. I really was thinking he is going to die”.
For Desmond too, it was a time for introspection.
“About death itself I’d say I came to see it as a gracious messenger who reminded me that actually I was taking too many things for granted.”
Through thick & thin, for better for worse – ‘til death us do part - “A Love Divine”, is a documentary exploration of the life & marriage of Desmond & Leah Tutu and the love that has kept them together over a journey of some fifty-years.
The documentary is produced & directed by Kevin Harris.
In October 1979, some 27 years ago, Kevin Harris – a fledgling producer at the time – was fired by SABC TV for ensuring the uncensored broadcast of his documentary on Baragwanath Hospital & the community of Soweto, titled “BARA”.
As an independent, a year later in 1980 Harris produced his first independent documentary titled, “This We Can do For Justice & For Peace”.
The documentary looked at the life & times of then General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, Bishop Desmond Tutu & the standpoint of the SACC against Apartheid.
Broadcast by NBC nationwide in the USA, “This We Can Do For Justice & For Peace” was awarded two Emmy Awards for Production & Editing respectively.
Drawing on scenes from this land-mark documentary, for veteran independent film-maker Kevin Harris, “Desmond & Leah Tutu – A Love Divine” completes a personal journey begun over tweny-five years ago.