I got to the University of Botswana Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS) as astudent about August 1970 as a first year B.Sc. student. My hall of residence was what used to be called Old Monastery, and I got on to the student committee.

In addition to being a Lecturer in the Department of Theology, and a Priest in charge of the Anglican Church on campus, Father Tutu was a also a warden of the man’s residence either Mswati hall or Chancellor Hall. In my first year, I just knew him at a distance because I am not an Anglican. In my second year, I became a leader of my residence Old Monastery, and we used to have regular meetings with the Wardens ofthe residences.

That was when I began to know Father Tutu well. These meetings dealt with student residential problems sharing them with the Wardens. Father Tutu started inspiring me as a leader at that time, and I started looking up to him, and many students were inspired by him as one of the few Africans on the faculty at UBLS. Some of us upon finishing first degrees went for masters degrees because we wanted to be like Father Tutu.

Father Tutu left the (UBLS) after I completed my second year, to be a priest somewhere else. I do not recall whether it was in Maseru or somewhere in South Africa.

The next time I saw him again he was Bishop Tutu and it was in Ottawa, during my student days at the University of Ottawa, when I was doing my Ph.D, a degree I may never have aspired to do if I had never met Father Tutu.

Dr. Molope is the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General to UNMEE and OIC of the Mission and is based in Asmara, Eritrea.