Tutu's South Africa and Muzorewa's Zimbabwe Compared
A human being is a human being only because he belongs to a community.
-- Desmond M. Ttutu, 1981
Christianity was a common denominator which brought my parents together.
-- Abel T. Muzorewa, 1978
When Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on October 7, 1931, South Africa had been independent for 21 years. While the attainment of independence on May 31, 1910, gave Afrikaners a sense of freedom from the old political enemy, the British, it aroused in them a new fear that at some point in time Africans would rebel against them as they had done in 1835 under the great Zulu king, Dingaan. In 1910 Afrikaners simply changed their fear of the British to be controlled by the fear of the Africans. From that time to April 1994 Afrikaners would never be free from that fear. This is why they designed and applied the policy of apartheid to ensure that Africans had no chance of exercising any form of political power that would threaten them. This is why politics in South Africa acquired racial dimensions. In fact, race was the major focus of political activity for these 84 years.