“It’s like falling in love” is Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s description of the voting method in the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994. This sentence captures what he said after decades of fighting against apartheid. Playful humor and deep emotions.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Mpilo Tutu passed away on Sunday. His moral power penetrated South African society during the darkest period of apartheid and entered the uncharted territory of a new democracy. . He is 90 years old.
The outspoken Tutu is regarded by blacks and whites as the conscience of the country, which is a lasting proof of his faith and spirit of reconciliation in a divided country.
He preached against the tyranny of a small number of whites. Even after the tyranny ended, he never wavered in the struggle for a fairer South Africa, calling on the black political elite to be as vigorous as the white Afrikaans.
In his later years, he regretted that his dream of “Rainbow Country” had not yet been realized.
On the global stage, the human rights activist spoke on a range of topics, from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories to gay rights, climate change, and assisted deaths—issues that underpin Tutu’s broad appeal.
Tutu “is a prophet and priest, a man who agrees with his words and deeds.” Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is the symbolic leader of Tutu’s Anglican Church, he said. British billionaire Richard Branson called him “a brave leader, a mischievous joy, a deep thinker and a dear friend”.
Tutu is only 5 feet 5 inches (1.7 meters) tall and has a contagious smile. He is a moral giant who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his non-violent struggle against apartheid.
He used his high-profile role in the Anglican Church to emphasize the plight of black South Africans.
In 1996, when asked if he had any regrets when he retired as the Archbishop of Cape Town, Tutu said: “Struggle tends to make people rude, not just a little bit self-righteous. I hope people can forgive me for giving them Any harm caused.”
Throughout the 1980s, Tutu talked and traveled tirelessly, becoming a spokesperson for the anti-apartheid movement abroad, and many leaders of the rebellious African National Congress (ANC), such as Nelson Mandela, All are in prison.
“Our land is burning and bleeding, so I call on the international community to impose punitive sanctions on this government,” he said in 1986.
Even if governments ignored this call, he helped awaken grassroots movements around the world and end apartheid through economic and cultural boycotts.
Former hardline white president PW Botha asked Tutu in a letter in March 1988 whether he was working for the kingdom of God or the kingdom promised by the banned but now ruling ANC.
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One of his most painful tasks was to deliver a cemetery speech for the blacks who died violently in the struggle against white rule.
“We are tired of attending funerals, tired of speaking week after week. Now is the time to stop wasting our lives,” he once said.
Tutu said that his stance on apartheid was moral, not political.
“Being a Christian in South Africa is easier than anywhere else because the moral problems in this country are very obvious,” he once told Reuters.
In February 1990, Tutu led Nelson Mandela to the balcony of Cape Town City Hall, overlooking the square, where the ANC amulet gave his first public speech after 27 years of imprisonment.
Four years later, when he was sworn in as the country’s first black president, he stood by Mandela’s side.
Mandela, who died in December 2013, described his friend this way: “Sometimes sharp, often gentle, never scared, rarely without a sense of humor, Desmond Tutu’s voice will always be silent.”
When Mandela introduced democracy to South Africa, Tutu led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which exposed the terrible truth about the war against white rule.
Some heartbreaking testimonies made him cry in public.
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But Tutu’s attitude towards new democracies is as tough as his attitude towards South African apartheid rulers.
He condemned the new ruling elite for boarding the privileged “gravy train” and condemned Mandela’s long and public affair with Graca Machel, who eventually married him.
In his truth commission report, Tutu refused to treat the ANC’s excessive behavior in the struggle against white rule more gently than the apartheid government.
Even in his later years, he never stopped speaking out his thoughts, condemning President Jacob Zuma’s corruption allegations regarding the security escalation of his home worth 23 million US dollars.
In 2014, he admitted on moral grounds that he did not vote for the African National Congress.
“As an old man, I am very sad because I had hoped that my last few days would be days of rejoicing, days of praising and praising young people for doing what we very much hope for,” Tutu said in an interview with Reuters. June 2014.
In December 2003, despite increasing criticism of his human rights record, he condemned the government’s support for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.
Tutu compares Zimbabwe’s isolation with South Africa’s struggle against apartheid.
“We call on the world to intervene and interfere in South Africa’s internal affairs. We cannot defeat apartheid on our own,” Tutu said. “What is the sauce of the goose, it must be the sauce of the stag.”
He also criticized South African President Thabo Mbeki for publicly questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, saying that Mbeki’s international image has been tarnished.
secondSchool teacher’s son
As the son of a teacher, Tutu was born on October 7, 1931 in Klerksdorp, a conservative town in western Johannesburg.
The family moved to Sophiatown in Johannesburg, one of the few mixed-race areas in the commercial capital, and was subsequently demolished under the apartheid law to make way for the white suburbs of Triomf-the Afrikaans victory.
Tutu has always been an enthusiastic student, initially a teacher. But he said he was angry with the black education system, which the Prime Minister of South Africa described as designed to prepare them for the role of servants in society.
Tutu retired from the faculty in 1957 and decided to join the church, first studying at St. Peter’s Theological Seminary in Johannesburg. He was appointed a priest in 1961 and continued his education at King’s College London.
After four years abroad, he returned to South Africa, where his keen intellect and charismatic preaching led him to rise through the position of lecturer and became the Dean of the Anglican Church in Johannesburg in 1975, when his radicalism began to take shape.
“I realized that I got a platform that many blacks could not easily obtain. Most of our leaders are now either chained or exiled. I said:’Well, I will use it to try to express our wishes and our The suffering of the people’,” he told reporters in 2004.
Until now, because the apartheid government’s status and global respect have been too prominent, Tutu took advantage of his appointment as Secretary-General of the South African Church Council in 1978 to call for sanctions against his country.
In 1986, he was appointed the first black archbishop of Cape Town and became the head of the fourth largest Anglican church in South Africa. He will retain the position until 1996.
After retiring, he fought with prostate cancer and largely withdrew from public life. In his last public appearance, he hosted Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and their four-month-old son Archie at the Charity Foundation in Cape Town in September 2019, calling them “really Loving” couple.
Tutu married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane in 1955. They have four children and several grandchildren. They have homes in Cape Town and the town of Soweto near Johannesburg.
