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2007
The main event for 2007 will be a visit to South Africa where the choir will perform a series of concerts and workshops with South African choirs. The tour will be in association with the Tutu Peace Centre.
When the choir sang Karl Jenkins's Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in November the concert was opened by Canon Colin Jones who is part of the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust. The Peace Trust aims to bring the world closer to peace through a process of reconciliation and restoration rather than retributive justice.
During his brief talk Canon Jones raised the question of why society builds military academies in large numbers but no peace academies. This omission will start to be corrected shortly when works starts on the very first Peace Centre which will be built in Cape Town. The centre should be finished during 2007 when the Peace Centre staff will relocated from rooms on the 10th floor of a high-rise office block to the new purpose built centre opposite the Cape Town Convention Centre.
Further information will appear shortly and in the interim here are some general details on Cape Town. Hopefully these will give choir members some idea of what awaits them.
Below left: A typical Cape beach.
Right: St George's Cathedral, the Tutu spiritual home.
Downtown Cape Town is very much built on a grid pattern, part of which is also on a hill. Modern high-rise buildings tend to dominate, though there are plenty of early nineteenth century ones as well. This area is a busy business area during the day but less welcoming at night.
Adjacent to the old town is the Waterfront development which has transformed the old dockside area into a modern, affluent and vibrant area awash with shops, restaurants and hotels. There is accommodation for everyone, from back-packers to millionaires. This is most probably the best area in which to stay as it is completely safe day and night and offers almost everything that anyone could want.
The city is dominated by Table Mountain which everyone should visit during their stay, though only when the top is clear of cloud. Access is by cable car or a 3hr scramble. The choice is yours. The views from the top are spectacular.
Just off the coast is Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned along with many of his compatriots. The island was a leper colony and then a general prison to which political prisoners were added later. Mandela was moved from the island after developing pneumonia and served the last 2 years of his imprisonment in an establishment near Paarl.
Right: A corner of Cape Town's Waterfront.
Below: Prisoners arriving at Robben Island.
A boat takes visitors to the island each day and they are shown around by an ex-political prisoner. You visit the exercise yard used by Mandela, his cell block which featured in the Millennium celebrations and the stone quarry where he was forced to work and where the prisoners discussed their plans for the new South Africa. This is a must, though take plenty of tissues!
The Cape of Good Hope is about 90 mins away and there are also miles of wonderful coastline close by and lots of spectacular scenery. So much to see and so little time to do it all.
Finally, a few words by Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu which will hopefully give choir members a feel for some of the ideas that are relevant to the modern South Africa: Mandela first. Much of black South Africa is poorly educated and a major Government objective is to change this situation. Mandela's dictum is 'Each one teach one' whereby those with knowledge pass it to someone else. A simple yet wonderfully effective method of spreading knowledge fast which is applicable in all communities.
Then Tutu speaking about his experiences during the Peace and Reconciliation Council.
When we heard of the unspeakable atrocities committed during the apartheid era, we were appalled at how low human beings can sink. We have this horrendous capacity for evil. All of us. Then we heard the moving stories of the victims of these atrocities relating how, despite all they had suffered, they were willing to forgive their tormentors revealing a breathtaking magnanimity and generosity of spirit. An enemy is a friend waiting to be made. We realised that we have a wonderful capacity for good. People are fundamentally good. We are made for love, for generosity, sharing, and compassion, for transcendence ... We are made to reach for the stars.
Etched onto the glass panels that enclose the western end of St George's Cathedral in Cape Town are the following words by Tutu:
Goodness is stronger than evil;
Love is stronger than hate;
Light is stronger than darkness;
Life is stronger than death;
Victory is ours through Him who loves us.
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