RELEASED: Jan. 16, 2003

DANVILLE, KY—Centre College will present a special public lecture as part of its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. Naomi Tutu will give a talk titled "Truth and Reconciliation: Searching for Common Ground" on Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Newlin Hall. She's the daughter of South African Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu

After the South African system of apartheid was overthrown, the South African Parliament created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995. The commission, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was formed to investigate the crimes committed during the apartheid regime and to bring to justice those who carried out the cruelties. Ms. Tutu maintains that there is still much to do to eradicate the legacy of three centuries of racial oppression in South Africa.

Naomi Tutu founded and was the chairperson of the Tutu Foundation, which from 1985 until 1990 helped South African refugees in African countries. The Foundation gave refugees scholarships so that they could learn skills that would make them self-supporting while in exile and would prepare them for constructive roles in free South Africa.

Tutu, born in Krugersdorp, South Africa, holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics and French from Berea College and an M.A .in international economic development from the University of Kentucky's Patterson School of Diplomacy. She's currently writing her dissertation for a doctorate with the London School of Economics while teaching in the education school at the University of Connecticut at Storrs.

Tutu has served as a consulting associate for Equator Advisory Services Ltd., a private consulting firm in sub-Saharan Africa, and has taught courses on development issues and education at the universities of Hartford and Connecticut and Brevard College. She worked at the University of Cape Town at the African Gender Institute where she was in charge of programs on race and gender and gender-based violence.

Currently, Tutu is program coordinator for the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University. The Institute focuses on the problem of racism in the global community.

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