Groton Headmaster Honored with Desmond Tutu Award
South Africa Partners has announced that Groton Headmaster Temba Maqubela will receive its 2014 Desmond Tutu Social Justice Award.
The award honors those who have demonstrated a commitment to social justice and to a free and democratic South Africa. Mr. Maqubela will be honored along with Albie Sachs (above right), an activist and former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
Mr. Maqubela said he was especially proud to share an award with Mr. Sachs, who worked against apartheid with the headmaster’s grandfather. “He really is what I think about when I think about inclusion,” he said of Sachs. Mr. Maqubela also finds it particularly meaningful to receive an award named for the Reverend Tutu. “Archbishop Tutu is a man of truth,” Mr. Maqubela said. “I’m humbled beyond words.
According to South Africa Partners, "A Desmond Tutu Social Justice Award honoree is an individual who has demonstrated a commitment to social justice, community empowerment, and peace and reconciliation—hallmarks of the Archbishop's many years of service. In addition, the individual is someone who has made a particularly important contribution to the realization of a free and democratic South Africa."
Mr. Maqubela and Mr. Sachs both were involved in efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. "Albie, a brilliant jurist and freedom fighter in South Africa's transition to democracy, has been central to shaping South Africa's advancement of equal rights," said South Africa Partners in its announcement. "Temba's extraordinary contributions to the field of education and his amazing personal journey are intertwined with South Africa's transition to democracy."
Past recipients of the Desmond Tutu Social Justice Award include the Archbishop himself, Desmond Tutu, in 2002; actor and activist Danny Glover in 2004; CARE president Helene Gayle in 2009; Boston Mayor Menino in 2010; Margaret Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in 2011; and singer and activist Harry Belafonte in 2012.
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Mr. Maqubela said he was especially proud to share an award with Mr. Sachs, who worked against apartheid with the headmaster’s grandfather. “He really is what I think about when I think about inclusion,” he said of Sachs. Mr. Maqubela also finds it particularly meaningful to receive an award named for the Reverend Tutu. “Archbishop Tutu is a man of truth,” Mr. Maqubela said. “I’m humbled beyond words.
According to South Africa Partners, "A Desmond Tutu Social Justice Award honoree is an individual who has demonstrated a commitment to social justice, community empowerment, and peace and reconciliation—hallmarks of the Archbishop's many years of service. In addition, the individual is someone who has made a particularly important contribution to the realization of a free and democratic South Africa."
Mr. Maqubela and Mr. Sachs both were involved in efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. "Albie, a brilliant jurist and freedom fighter in South Africa's transition to democracy, has been central to shaping South Africa's advancement of equal rights," said South Africa Partners in its announcement. "Temba's extraordinary contributions to the field of education and his amazing personal journey are intertwined with South Africa's transition to democracy."
Past recipients of the Desmond Tutu Social Justice Award include the Archbishop himself, Desmond Tutu, in 2002; actor and activist Danny Glover in 2004; CARE president Helene Gayle in 2009; Boston Mayor Menino in 2010; Margaret Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in 2011; and singer and activist Harry Belafonte in 2012.
The honorees will receive their awards Saturday, April 26, 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The timing coincides with the 20th anniversary of democratic elections in South Africa, where April 27 is a public holiday known as Freedom Day.
“I come to be at Groton School partly through the catalytic work for freedom and inclusion that heroes such as Archbishop Tutu and Albie Sachs waged through their lives," Mr. Maqubela said. "They both accelerated the arrival of freedom in our lifetime.”
(Temba Maqubela photo by Annie Card; Albie Sachs photo by Ram Eisenberg)
“I come to be at Groton School partly through the catalytic work for freedom and inclusion that heroes such as Archbishop Tutu and Albie Sachs waged through their lives," Mr. Maqubela said. "They both accelerated the arrival of freedom in our lifetime.”
(Temba Maqubela photo by Annie Card; Albie Sachs photo by Ram Eisenberg)
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