Product Description

"Rabble-Rouser for Peace" is the first book to tell the full story of how a boy from South Africa's poverty-stricken black townships became one of the world's best-known religious figures, a moral icon to those who work for peace and justice everywhere. Drawn from 30 years of the author's first-hand contact with Tutu, this is not only a vivid character study of a public figure with a unique capacity to communicate warmth, humour and compassion; it is also a rich account of his dynamic place in history. The story of Desmond Tutu's life tells a crucial part of South Africa's history and its movement towards peace, but it also follows the growth of one of the best loved and globally most recognised men of our time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46395 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

About the Author
First working as a journalist in South Africa, and then as Tutu's Press Secretary, John Allen was invited to join the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as Director of Communications in 1995. Next he was aide to Tutu when the Archbishop taught in Atlanta for two years. Thus he has had a unique opportunity to observe his subject at first hand and is being given complete access to the Archbishop's personal and public files. He lives in South Africa.

Customer Reviews

Theme of prayer behind the man of action
He is a big name Christian, and he needed a wise biographer with a steady hand. And it is the steady hand of John Allen that I came to appreciate more and more as I turned the pages of his book. There is plenty of fascinating detail, seen in the dramatic introduction which tells of a full blown row Tutu had with Botha when he went to plead for the Sharpeville Six. It deteriorated into a slanging match. Driving away from it Tuto ruefully said, `I don't know that is how Jesus would have handled it.' But you never get lost, and the author keeps your eye on the main story: Tutu's journey to first become for a number of years both South Africa's primate, and the main leader of the opposition to the apartheid regime, and then to head up the modern world's first Committee of Reconciliation. It is this mix of dramatic detail and reliable narrative that makes the book such a success. I learned a lot, but what struck me most was the impact of private prayer on a very public scene. Allen does a great job in taking us into Tutu's disciplined spiritual life leant from the Mirfield Fathers. He gets up very very early to pray, has an hour of prayer in the middle of the day, and ends with prayers. There is also regular fasting. And while this is no polemical spiritual tract, nevertheless the calm author lets us know that Tutu spent the night of September 7th 1988 alone in his prayer chapel, distraught over the treatment of protesters. He emerged the next morning convinced God had told him to call for a mass march. De Klerk had just taken over and the march posed a challenge. If he banned it hundreds could be arrested and killed, if he allowed it, who knew what would happen. He chose the latter. When asked how many would come Tutu said he had no idea, maybe a thousand. Thirty thousand came in Cape Town. And the march was repeated in other major cities. The final beginning of the end of apartheid can be dated to that march. And that march was born in a bishop's private chapel. Prayer - and tears also marked Tutu's leadership of the Reconcilation Committee. It was meant to be non religious, but Tutu ignored all this political correctness. He turned up in his full bishop's regalia and instead of keeping silent at the start of proceedings, prayed. And after prayer, the exhortation to forgive. Sometimes it later emerges that great figures like Tutu had skeletons in their cupboards: there were none here. And such is the thoroughness of the book, I doubt if there will be. Tutu is a challenge to all Christian leaders in troubled conflict areas to get completely involved - but not to forget the prayer chapel.

Rabble Rouser for Peace
This is the story of a great man who resolutely campaigned for the people of South Africa. It is told with balance and humanity and is the story of a very brave man. I commend it to all world leaders and to all world readers.