South Africa’s retired Archbishop and anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, passed away on Sunday, December 26 at the age of 90.
Lamenting the death of Archbishop Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and veteran of South Africa’s struggle against white minority rule, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that “The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa’. He was hailed as an iconic spiritual leader, anti-apartheid activist and global human rights campaigner.
After being ordained as a priest in 1960, Tutu went on to serve as bishop of Lesotho, assistant bishop of Johannesburg, rector of a parish in Soweto, Bishop of Johannesburg and was appointed the first black Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986. He used his high-profile role to condemn the oppression of black people in South Africa. A contemporary of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu was a major force behind the apartheid movement to end racial segregation and discrimination by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991. He won the Nobel prize in 1984 for his role in the struggle. When Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, Tutu guided the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate crimes committed by both whites and blacks during the apartheid era. Later he became very critical of the African National Congress (ANC) government in the post-apartheid era. He felt ANC was misrepresenting South Africa and expressed his disappointment openly. He is credited with coining the term Rainbow Nation to describe the ethnic mix of post-apartheid South Africa.
