Watch the new interview with Tutu Alicante, a human rights activist from Equatorial Guinea, on the Freedom Collection. While Tutu was...
Watch the new interview with Tutu Alicante, a human rights activist from Equatorial Guinea, on the Freedom Collection. While Tutu was studying to join the priesthood in 1993, his cousin participated in a demonstration calling on the government for greater respect of human rights and more comprehensive efforts to address the country’s debilitating poverty. The regime responded by arresting, or killing, the demonstrators and torching Tutu’s family home. Following that incident, Tutu made it his mission to become a voice for the downtrodden people of Equatorial Guinea and has since founded EG justice, a nonprofit organization committed to empowering a new generation of human rights activists. During the interview, Tutu conveyed his disbelief that such a discussion was even possible, given that only a few years ago he needed to use pseudonyms to communicate with the outside world. Describing the events that led him to forgo the seminary and dedicate his life to advocating for human rights, he said, “I remember having a conversation with my father that night where I asked him what we were going to do about what had just happened. Our house had been burned down…And to this day, I vividly remember my father’s face. He could barely get the words out. But his answer to me – ‘no, there is nothing we can do; we just have to build another house.’ And that so changed my mind, there – it so affected me because that was the resignation that the entire community felt and shared. I refused at that moment to believe that nothing could be done in the face of these atrocities…” http://www.freedomcollection.org/interviews/tutu_alicante/ This post was written by Christopher Walsh, Program Coordinator of the Freedom Collection.
