By Florence Mafomemeh
“His most characteristic quality is his readiness to take unpopular positions without fear. Such independence of mind is vital to a thriving democracy,” Mandela once said of Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop of South Africa who died peacefully on December 26, 2021 in Cape Town. He was 90.
Diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s, Tutu had been hospitalized several times since 2015 to treat infections associated with its treatment.
He was laid in state at St George’s on Friday before his funeral service there on Saturday. His ashes were interred Sunday in a private ceremony in St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. The revered anti-apartheid leader had requested aquamation, an eco-friendly cremation.
Lauded by both Black and white South Africans, the Nobel Prize winner became an international symbol of the fight against iron-fisted rule by a white minority. Tutu won many international awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his non-violent opposition to white minority rule.
He was also awarded the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism (1986), Gandhi Peace Prize (2007), Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by then President Obama (2009), Audie Audiobook of the Year (2015), Sydney Peace Prize (1999), Fulbright Prize (2008) and Audie Award for Original Work in 2015.
Born Desmond Mpilo Tutu on Oct. 7, 1931 near Johannesburg, Tutu spent most of his later life in Cape Town and led numerous marches and campaigns to end apartheid from St George’s Cathedral’s front steps.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, veteran and one of the most prominent opponents of South Africa’s system of racial segregation and white minority rule stressed non-violent protest and foreign economic pressure to bring about universal suffrage.
Tutu, who was revered as his nation’s conscience by both the black and white races, witnessed the end of that regime a decade later and chaired a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to unearth atrocities committed under it.
Though he officially retired from public life on his 79th birthday, the anti-apartheid hero was still fighting for human rights. He once said of himself: “I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t” as he continued to speak out on a range of moral issues.
In 2013, he declared his support for gay rights, saying he would never “worship a God who is homophobic” as he launched a campaign for LGBTQ rights in Cape Town. “I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say, ‘Sorry, I would much rather go to the other place,’” Tutu said.
The late archbishop said he was as passionate about this campaign as he ever was about apartheid. He was one of the most prominent religious leaders to advocate LGBTQ rights — a stance that put him at odds with many in South Africa and across the continent as well as within the Anglican church.
Dubbed “the people’s archbishop,” Tutu regretted in his final years that his dream of a “Rainbow Nation” had yet to come true, and was often at odds with allies at the ruling African National Congress party over their failures to address the poverty and inequalities that they promised to eradicate
Tutu is survived by his children and wife of 66 years, Leah with whom he renewed his 1955 wedding vows in 2015.
Some fun facts:
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 after 27 years, his first night of freedom was spent at Tutu’s residence in Cape Town.
Tutu and Mandela who were long-time friends lived for a time on the same street- Vilakazi Street in the South African township of Soweto.
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” — Desmond Tutu
You must be logged in to post a comment.