Painful History in South Africa, U.S. Led to ‘Tutu and Franklin’ Encounter

“Tutu and Franklin: A Journey Towards Peace,” a new two-hour documentary premiering tonight on KCET-TV, chronicles the historic first encounter between South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and U.S. historian and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Dr. John Hope Franklin. For a week in December 1998, they met on Goree Island, the infamous former slave port off the coast of Senegal, to discuss their nations’ struggle for racial equality. Joining them during the week were 21 high school students from the United States, Senegal and South Africa, with the group engaging in emotional conversations about race.

Veteran network journalist Renee Poussaint is the executive producer, writer and narrator of “Tutu and Franklin,” and discussed her experiences making the documentary.

Question: Can you discuss the genesis of “Tutu and Franklin: A Journey Towards Peace”?

Answer: It just so happened that John Hope Franklin and the President’s Advisory Board on Race were presenting their report to [then-President] Clinton at about the same time Archbishop Tutu was presenting his report to [then-South African] President Mandela on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I knew both of the men because I had covered them as a reporter, so I thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful if they could share their insights into race and reconciliation, to see what similarities and differences there are between the two countries and perhaps learn something from each other?

I am a frustrated teacher, and so I am always thinking in terms of young people and empowering them with more information. So I thought it would be really important to have whatever came from the elders to have that conveyed to the next generation, but also have the next generation question and challenge the elders.

Q: What was the experience like following Dr. Franklin and Archbishop Tutu for an entire week?

A: Well, one of the things that struck me was that early on, shortly after they first met and were having conversations and getting to know each other, Archbishop Tutu said to several of us that were around, including John Hope Franklin, that he sees Dr. Franklin as sort of an African elder. And as an African elder, he, Tutu, felt he had much to learn from him and would defer to him. So for the bulk of the time they were together, it was sort of a running story between them--that Franklin was the elder and Tutu was the young kid, which is kind of odd to think of them in those terms. One of the things that seemed to become apparent right away was that both of them had a great sense of humor, and even though they were there talking about some very serious subjects and sharing some difficult realities, they also cracked each other up. By the time the week was over, they had a very easy rapport with each other.

Q: Was it a challenge to find a diverse group of students from South Africa, Senegal and the U.S.?

A: It was because we didn’t have a lot of time, and we only had a brief window of opportunity when Dr. Franklin and Archbishop Tutu would be available for an entire week. Trying to get particularly a week of Archbishop Tutu’s time was a small miracle. The reason we were able to work this out is that one of my good friends for many years, Mary Joseph, is the wife of the former U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Jim Joseph. They were still in South Africa, so I called Mary and she ended up being our liaison person in South Africa. It took some doing because we really did want that kind of variety not only ethnically, but in terms of class. We were very fortunate because John Hope Franklin’s son, John W. Franklin, a program officer at the Smithsonian, became our contact person as far as Senegal was concerned. Here in the U.S., I called upon several friends and colleagues of mine who are educators in different parts of the country.

Q: The 21 students were very frank about their racial differences as well as discussing their class and religious conflicts.

A: What I was pleasantly surprised about was their willingness to talk about it and to be open and honest about it. That is really, really difficult to do. They all understood what they were coming there for. It wasn’t a vacation. It wasn’t a field trip. And the weight of recognizing that they would be called on to have an intelligent conversation with John Hope Franklin and Archbishop Tutu also made them very serious about the issues and getting to them as quickly as possible. The thing I was surprised about was how quickly they did it. From the time they get off the bus and got into the hotel, they started on their own thrashing out some of the issues.

We were very fortunate in that we had a young camera person who volunteered to be with the students all the time, Tommy Walker. I asked him if he would live with the students and have a little digi-camera and record those informal moments where they get involved in these kind of discussions.

Q: Have you kept in contact with the students?

A: Yes. As a matter of fact, we just had all of them here in Washington. The Smithsonian chose the film as the centerpiece for its Martin Luther King [Jr.] celebration. So we were able--thanks to Camille Cosby, who was the initial funder for this--to bring over all 21 students to attend the premiere. I got a funding grant from a foundation, and while the students were here, we had a mini--diversity conference. We put our 21 students together with 21 high school students from the District of Columbia. They lived together for about five days and focused on coming up with suggestions for improving race relations in the District of Columbia. It was just wonderful. What the D.C. school officials have now decided is to turn it into a permanent course on race and ethnicity in Washington, D.C.

* “Tutu and Franklin: A Journey Towards Peace” airs tonight at 9 on KCET-TV.