Notes on Research and Sources used in Rabble-Rouser for Peace

Rabble-Rouser for Peace

“Rabble-Rouser for Peace” is based on archival research, interviews and experience including:

  • Research in archives and libraries spread from Cape Town to Oxford and from Southern California to Geneva
  • About 100 interviews with subjects ranging from Desmond Tutu’s sisters in South Africa to Kofi Annan of the United Nations and rock star Bono of U2 in Ireland
  • Groundbreaking research on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to South Africans, carried out by Norwegian researcher Anne Ragnhild Breiby under the supervision of the Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Dr. Geir Lundestad
  • The author’s reporting on the early years of Desmond Tutu’s public life in South Africa, from 1976 to 1982
  • The author’s experiences as Tutu’s press secretary while Tutu was archbishop of Cape Town, and as the communications director of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission
  • The author’s paper and electronic archives.

Primary sources for the period of Tutu’s early life included Tutu, his sisters, fellow students, pupils and the archives of the Methodist Church and the University of South Africa, but in particular the archives of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa at the William Cullen Library at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg. The story of Tutu’s acceptance as a candidate for theological training, his years at St Peter’s College and the early years of his ministry is based on Tutu’s confidential student and clergy records in the church’s archives and on interviews with, among others, members of the Community of the Resurrection who taught him. Details of Tutu’s correspondence with Harry Oppenheimer were supplemented by the Brenthurst Library, Johannesburg.

Tutu’s relationship with Aelred Stubbs and his years at King’s College, London, are vividly portrayed by interlocking correspondence from three sources: the files of St Peter’s College at Wits, his student file in the Theological Education Fund records at the archives of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, and his student file at King’s College, London. Interviews with Tutu’s English friends from the time fleshed the picture out.

The Tutu family’s sojourn at Alice in the Eastern Cape and at Roma in Lesotho is documented in the church archive at Wits, the archives of the Federal Theological Seminary at the University of Fort Hare and the library of the National University of Lesotho. The remarkable trip reports documenting Tutu’s experiences as he travelled around Africa, making 48 visits to 25 African countries over three years, are in the files of the Theological Education Fund at the WCC.

The Anglican Church’s archives at Wits, and the South African Council of Churches archives, also at Wits, supervised by the superb Carol Archibald, provide the single biggest source of written material on Tutu from the mid-1970s, when he became a public figure in South Africa, to the mid 1990s, when he retired as archbishop. Much of Tutu’s SACC general correspondence is held in the library of the University of Cape Town, and letters written—some of them never sent—to Tutu by Nelson Mandela while in prison are held at the National Archives of South Africa. For the later years, the Tutu collection held at the University of the Western Cape/Mayibuye Archive also has an enormous amount of material. In writing the chapters on Tutu’s time as archbishop and on his international work (chapters 12, 13, 14 and 16), the author’s electronic archive—published between 1988 and 1995 in a service known mostly as “Bishopscourt Update”—was also used.

The Anglican Church’s archives at Wits, and the South African Council of Churches archives, also at Wits, supervised by the superb Carol Archibald, provide the single biggest source of written material on Tutu from the mid-1970s, when he became a public figure in South Africa, to the mid 1990s, when he retired as archbishop. Much of Tutu’s SACC general correspondence is held in the library of the University of Cape Town, and letters written—some of them never sent—to Tutu by Nelson Mandela while in prison are held at the National Archives of South Africa. For the later years, the Tutu collection held at the University of the Western Cape/Mayibuye Archive also has an enormous amount of material. In writing the chapters on Tutu’s time as archbishop and on his international work (chapters 12, 13, 14 and 16), the author’s electronic archive—published between 1988 and 1995 in a service known mostly as “Bishopscourt Update”—was also used.

In the United States, the National Security Archive operated from George Washington University in Washington, DC, includes an incomparable source for the diplomatic history of the relationship between South Africa and the U.S. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library at Simi Valley, California, and the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library at College Station, Texas, were the source of valuable insights into how Tutu was viewed by Republican administrations during the sanctions debates of the 1980s. In the United Kingdom, the Trevor Huddleston collection and the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives, both held at the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies, Rhodes House, Oxford, provided useful material.

Finally, Howard Barrell’s D. Phil. thesis, Conscripts to Their Age, provided fascinating insights on the ANC‘s armed struggle from the mid 1970s to mid 1980s, and the online records of the Truth and Reconcilation Commisson, launched in the early days of the web by the pioneering Steve Crawford, as well as the six volumes of the TRC‘s main and final reports, were used extensively for chapters 10 to 16.

Full list of Archives