desmond tutu biography summary

Desmond Tutu

Nobel Peace Prize award-winner Desmond Tutu was a renowned South African Anglican cleric known for his staunch opposition to the policies of apartheid.

(1931-2021)

Who Was Desmond Tutu?

Desmond Tutu established a career in education before turning to theology, ultimately becoming one of the world's most prominent spiritual leaders. In 1978, Tutu was appointed the general secretary of his country's Council of Churches and became a leading spokesperson for the rights of Black South Africans. During the 1980s, he played an almost unrivaled role in drawing national and international attention to the iniquities of apartheid, and in 1984, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. He later chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and has continued to draw attention to a number of social justice issues over the years.

Early Life and Education

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on October 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, South Africa. His father was an elementary school principal and his mother worked cooking and cleaning at a school for the blind. The South Africa of Tutu's youth was rigidly segregated, with Black Africans denied the right to vote and forced to live in specific areas. Although as a child Tutu understood that he was treated worse than white children based on nothing other than the color of his skin, he resolved to make the best of the situation and still managed a happy childhood.

"We knew, yes, we were deprived," he later recalled in an Academy of Achievement interview. "It wasn't the same thing for white kids, but it was as full a life as you could make it. I mean, we made toys for ourselves with wires, making cars, and you really were exploding with joy!" Tutu recalled one day when he was out walking with his mother when a white man, a priest named Trevor Huddleston, tipped his hat to her — the first time he had ever seen a white man pay this respect to a Black woman. The incident made a profound impression on Tutu, teaching him that he need not accept discrimination and that religion could be a powerful tool for advocating racial equality.

Tutu was a bright and curious child with a passion for reading. He especially loved reading comic strips as well as Aesop's Fables and the plays of William Shakespeare . His family eventually moved to Johannesburg, and it was during Tutu's teen years that he contracted tuberculosis, spending a year and a half at a sanatorium to recuperate. The experience inspired his ambition to become a medical doctor and find a cure for the disease. Tutu attended Johannesburg Bantu High School, a grossly underfunded all-Black school where he nevertheless excelled academically. "...many of the people who taught us were very dedicated and they inspired you to want to emulate them and really to become all that you could become," Tutu remembered when speaking to the Academy of Achievement. "They gave you the impression that, in fact, yeah, the sky is the limit. You can, even with all of the obstacles that are placed in your way; you can reach out to the stars."

Tutu graduated from high school in 1950, and although he had been accepted into medical school, his family could not afford the expensive tuition. Instead, he accepted a scholarship to study education at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and graduated with his teacher's certificate in 1953. He then continued on to receive a bachelor's degree from the University of South Africa in 1954. Upon graduation, Tutu returned to his high school alma mater to teach English and history. "...I tried to be what my teachers had been to me to these kids," he said, "seeking to instill in them a pride, a pride in themselves. A pride in what they were doing. A pride that said they may define you as so and so. You aren't that. Make sure you prove them wrong by becoming what the potential in you says you can become."

Fighting Apartheid

Tutu became increasingly frustrated with the racism corrupting all aspects of South African life under apartheid. In 1948, the National Party won control of the government and codified the nation's long-present segregation and inequality into the official, rigid policy of apartheid. In 1953, the government passed the Bantu Education Act, a law that lowered the standards of education for Black South Africans to ensure that they only learned what was necessary for a life of servitude. The government spent one-tenth as much money on the education of a Black student as on the education of a white one, and Tutu's classes were highly overcrowded. No longer willing to participate in an educational system explicitly designed to promote inequality, he quit teaching in 1957.

The next year, in 1958, Tutu enrolled at St. Peter's Theological College in Johannesburg. He was ordained as an Anglican deacon in 1960 and as a priest in 1961. In 1962, Tutu left South Africa to pursue further theological studies in London, receiving his master's of theology from King's College in 1966. He then returned from his four years abroad to teach at the Federal Theological Seminary at Alice in the Eastern Cape as well as to serve as the chaplain of the University of Fort Hare. In 1970, Tutu moved to the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland in Roma to serve as a lecturer in the department of theology. Two years later, he decided to move back to England to accept his appointment as the associate director of the Theological Education Fund of the World Council of Churches in Kent.

Tutu's rise to international prominence began when he became the first Black person to be appointed the Anglican dean of Johannesburg in 1975. It was in this position that he emerged as one of the most prominent and eloquent voices in the South African anti-apartheid movement, especially important considering that many of the movement's prominent leaders were imprisoned or in exile.

In 1976, shortly after he was appointed Bishop of Lesotho, further raising his international profile, Tutu wrote a letter to the South African prime minister warning him that a failure to quickly redress racial inequality could have dire consequences, but his letter was ignored. In 1978, Tutu was selected as the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, again becoming the first Black citizen appointed to the position, and he continued to use his elevated position in the South African religious hierarchy to advocate for an end to apartheid. "So, I never doubted that ultimately we were going to be free, because ultimately I knew there was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life," he said.

Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

In 1984, Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize "not only as a gesture of support to him and to the South African Council of Churches of which he was a leader, but also to all individuals and groups in South Africa who, with their concern for human dignity, fraternity and democracy, incite the admiration of the world," as stated by the award's committee. Tutu was the first South African to receive the award since Albert Luthuli in 1960. His receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize transformed South Africa's anti-apartheid movement into a truly international force with deep sympathies all across the globe. The award also elevated Tutu to the status of a renowned world leader whose words immediately brought attention.

Tutu and Nelson Mandela

In 1985, Tutu was appointed the Bishop of Johannesburg, and a year later he became the first Black person to hold the highest position in the South African Anglican Church when he was chosen as the Archbishop of Cape Town. In 1987, he was also named the president of the All Africa Conference of Churches, a position he held until 1997. In no small part due to Tutu's eloquent advocacy and brave leadership, in 1993, South African apartheid finally came to an end, and in 1994, South Africans elected Nelson Mandela as their first Black president. The honor of introducing the new president to the nation fell to the archbishop. President Mandela also appointed Tutu to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, tasked with investigating and reporting on the atrocities committed by both sides in the struggle over apartheid.

Continued Activism

Although he officially retired from public life in the late 1990s, Tutu continued to advocate for social justice and equality across the globe, specifically taking on issues like treatment for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS prevention, climate change and the right for the terminally ill to die with dignity. In 2007, he joined The Elders, a group of seasoned world leaders including Kofi Annan , Mary Robinson, Jimmy Carter and others, who meet to discuss ways to promote human rights and world peace.

Desmond Tutu Books

Tutu also penned several books over the years, including No Future Without Forgiveness (1999), the children's title God's Dream (2008) and The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World (2016), with the latter co-authored by the Dalai Lama .

Tutu stood among the world's foremost human rights activists. Like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. , his teachings reached beyond the specific causes for which he advocated to speak for all oppressed peoples' struggles for equality and freedom. Perhaps what made Tutu so inspirational and universal a figure was his unshakable optimism in the face of overwhelming odds and his limitless faith in the ability of human beings to do good. "Despite all of the ghastliness in the world, human beings are made for goodness," he once said. "The ones that are held in high regard are not militarily powerful, nor even economically prosperous. They have a commitment to try and make the world a better place."

Personal Life

Tutu married Nomalizo Leah on July 2, 1955. They had four children and remained married until his death on December 26, 2021.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Desmond Tutu
• Birth Year: 1931
• Birth date: October 7, 1931
• Birth City: Klerksdorp
• Birth Country: South Africa
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Nobel Peace Prize award-winner Desmond Tutu was a renowned South African Anglican cleric known for his staunch opposition to the policies of apartheid.
• Civil Rights
• Christianity
• Journalism and Nonfiction
• Education and Academia
• Astrological Sign: Libra
• St. Peter's Theological College
• King's College
• Nacionalities
• South African
• Interesting Facts
• Desmond Tutu first sought out to be a doctor but was unable to afford the tuition.
• Tutu was the first Black person to be appointed the Anglican dean of Johannesburg in 1975.
• Tutu co-authored a book with the Dalai Lama.
• Death Year: 2021
• Death date: December 26, 2021

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Desmond Tutu Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figures/desmond-tutu
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: December 26, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• ...when you discover that apartheid sought to mislead people into believing that what gave value to human beings was a biological irrelevance, really, skin color or ethnicity, and you saw how the scriptures say it is because we are created in the image of God, that each one of us is a God-carrier. No matter what our physical circumstances may be, no matter how awful, no matter how deprived you could be, it doesn't take away from you this intrinsic worth.
• All of those who have ever strutted the world stage as if they are invincible roosters—Hitler, Stalin, Amin and those apartheid guys...they bite the dust.
• The universe can take quite a while to deliver. God is patient with us to become the God's children he wants us to be but you really can see him weeping.

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Desmond Tutu summary

Desmond Tutu , (born Oct. 7, 1931, Klerksdorp, S.Af.—died Dec. 26, 2021, Cape Town), South African Anglican cleric. Tutu studied theology at the University of South Africa and King’s College, London. He became an Anglican priest in 1961 and bishop of Lesotho in 1976. In 1978 he became general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and an eloquent and outspoken advocate for the rights of Black South Africans.

Tutu emphasized nonviolent protest and encouraged other countries to apply economic pressure to South Africa. In 1984 he received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in opposing apartheid . In 1986 he was elected the first Black archbishop of Cape Town and titular head of South Africa’s 1.6-million-member Anglican church. He retired from the primacy in 1996 and became chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, charged with hearing evidence of human rights violations under white rule. In 1988 he was named chancellor of the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, S.Af. In 2010 he retired from public life.

Biography Online

Desmond Tutu Biography

Tutu was born Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa on 7 October 1931. After graduating from school, he studied at Pretoria Bantu Normal College from 1951.  However, after the passage of the apartheid Bantu Education Act in 1953, Tutu resigned from teaching in protest at the diminished opportunities for black South Africans. He continued to study, concentrating on Theology. During this period in 1955, he married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane – they had four children together. In 1961, he was ordained an Anglican Priest.

Desmond Tutu at Vilakazi Street, Soweto. Photo Johan Wessels CC SA

In 1962, he moved to England, where he studied at Kings College London, where he gained a master’s degree in theology. He also became a part-time curate in St Alban’s and Golders Green.

In 1967, he returned to South Africa and became increasingly involved in the anti-apartheid movement. He was influenced amongst others by fellow Anglican Bishop Trevor Huddleston. Tutu’s understanding of the Gospels and his Christian faith meant he felt compelled to take a stand and speak out against injustice.

In 1975, he was appointed Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black to hold that position. From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches.

Campaign against Apartheid

In 1976, there were increasing levels of protests by black South Africans against apartheid, especially in Soweto. In his position as a leading member of the clergy, Desmond Tutu used his influence to speak firmly and unequivocally against apartheid, often comparing it to Fascist regimes.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

His outspoken criticism caused him to be briefly jailed in 1980, and his passport was twice revoked. However, due to his position in the church, the government were reluctant to make a ‘martyr’ out of him. This gave Desmond Tutu more opportunity to criticise the government than many other members of the ANC.

During South Africa’s turbulent transformation to end apartheid and implement democracy, Tutu was a powerful force for encouraging inter-racial harmony. He encouraged fellow South Africans to transcend racial differences and see themselves as one nation.

“Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.”

– New York Times (19 October 1984)

In the post-Apartheid era, Desmond Tutu is credited with coining the phrase ‘Rainbow Nation’ A symbolic term for the aspiration to unite South Africa and forget past divisions. The expression has since entered mainstream consciousness to describe South Africa’s ethnic diversity.

“At home in South Africa I have sometimes said in big meetings where you have black and white together: ‘Raise your hands!’ Then I have said: ‘Move your hands,’ and I’ve said ‘Look at your hands – different colors representing different people. You are the Rainbow People of God.’”

Sermon in Tromsö, Norway (5 December 1991)

Tutu has frequently called for a message of reconciliation and forgiveness. He has stated that real justice is not about retribution but seeking to illumine and enable people to move forward.

“There are different kinds of justice. Retributive justice is largely Western. The African understanding is far more restorative – not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew.”

– Desmond Tutu, “Recovering from Apartheid” at The New Yorker (18 November 1996)

Desmond Tutu on foreign policy

Desmond Tutu was critical of George Bush and Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq. He criticised the decision to single out Iraq for possession of weapons (which they later proved not to have) when many other countries had a far more deadly arsenal.

He has also been critical of America’s war on Terror, in particular highlighting the abuse of human rights in places such as Guantanamo Bay.

Desmond Tutu has been critical of Israeli attitudes to the occupation of Palestine. He has also been critical of the US-Israeli lobby which is intolerant of any criticism of Israel.

Tutu took part in investigations into the Isreali bombings in the Beit Hanoun November 2006 incident. During that fact-finding mission, Tutu called the Gaza blockade an abomination and compared Israel’s behaviour to the military junta in Burma. During the 2008–2009 Gaza War, Tutu called the Israeli offensive “war crimes.”

Tutu has also become involved in the issue of Climate Change, calling it one of the great challenges of humanity.

Social Issues

Desmond Tutu, Cologne, 2007. © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0

Desmond Tutu has been in the forefront of campaigns against the AIDS virus, especially in South Africa where the government have often been reticent. Desmond Tutu has a tolerant attitude to the issue of homosexuality. In particular, he despairs at the huge amount of time and energy wasted on discussing the issue within the church. According to Tutu, there should be no discrimination against people of homosexual orientation.

“Jesus did not say, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw some’ .” Jesus said, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw all, all, all, all, all . Black, white, yellow, rich, poor, clever, not so clever, beautiful, not so beautiful. It’s one of the most radical things.”

Tutu was the first black ordained South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. Other awards given to  Desmond Tutu include The Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and the Maqubela Prize for Liberty in 1986.

Since Nelson Mandela ‘s passing, Tutu became increasingly critical of the ANC leadership, believing they wasted opportunities to create a better legacy and end the poverty endemic in many black townships.

Tutu is one of the patrons of The Forgiveness Project, a UK-based charity which seeks to facilitate conflict resolution and break the cycle of vengeance and retaliation.

Tutu is a committed Christian and starts every day with a period of quiet, reflection, walk  and Bible reading. Even on the momentous day of 27 April 1994 when blacks were able to vote for the first time, Tutu wrote “As always, I had got up early for a quiet time before my morning walk and then morning prayers and the Eucharist. ”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Sri Chinmoy

Tutu is also a supporter of interfaith harmony. He admires fellow religious leaders, such as the Dalai Lama and feels that a person’s outer religion is not of critical importance.

“Bringing people together is what I call ‘Ubuntu,’ which means ‘I am because we are.’ Far too often people think of themselves as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”

Tutu died from cancer in December 2021, whilst being treated in Cape Town, South Africa.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan .  “ Biography Desmond Tutu” Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net – 13th March 2017. Last updated 1 March 2021

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Tutu, Desmond

1931-2021 Anglican Communion South Africa

Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, about 179 km west of Johannesburg into a Methodist family that later became Anglican. His parents were Xhosa and Tswana, and his father was a teacher. He attended school at Johannesburg Bantu High School. He trained first as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and, in 1954, he graduated from the University of South Africa. He worked for three years as a high school teacher and then decided to study theology. He had wanted to pursue a medical career but could not afford the training.

In 1955, he married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane After his ordination as a priest in 1961, he pursued further theological study in England from 1962 to 1966, leading up to a Master of Theology. He taught theology in the Eastern Cape, South Africa from 1967 to 1972. At this time, he started to make his antiapartheid views known. He then returned to England for three years to become the assistant director of a theological institute in London. In 1975 he became the first Black Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg.

In 1985, at a time when townships were rising up in rebellions against the apartheid regime, Tutu was installed as the first Black Anglican bishop. He publicly endorsed civil disobedience and an economic boycott of South Africa to put an end to apartheid. A year later he was elected the first Black archbishop of Cape Town. With other church leaders, he mediated clashes between government forces and Black protesters. In 1988, he also became Chancellor of the University of Western Cape in Bellville, South Africa.

In 1990, President FW de Klerk unbanned the African National Congress (ANC) and announced the imminent release of Nelson Mandela from prison. Apartheid laws and racist restrictions were repealed the following year. 1994 saw the first democratic elections during which Mandela won by a landslide. At this time, Tutu coined the term “Rainbow nation” to describe the multiracial composition of post-apartheid South Africa.

Also in 1994, Mandela invited Tutu to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights violations under apartheid. In 1996, Tutu retired from his position as a primate and became archbishop emeritus, though continuing to work as a public figure. He pulled out of public life in 2010 but continued to advocate for conflict resolution with other world leaders in the group The Elders that he co-founded in 2007. In 2013 he criticized the ANC for its inaction in addressing questions of inequality, corruption, and violence. Through the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation ( https://www.tutu.org.za/ ), he and his wife worked to promote peace-building and conflict resolution to achieve reconciliation and cultivate accountable servant leadership.

Tutu was not afraid to critique the church that he had served for decades. When there was an uproar over the ordination of gay bishops in the Anglican Church, he criticized an “obsession” with homosexuality that overshadowed the clergy’s battle on poverty. This did not stop him from declaring his support for gay rights in 2013.

On October 7, 2021 he attended a thanksgiving service in honor of his 90th birthday at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, his former parish. He died on December 26, 2021 in Cape Town. According to Al Jazeera online:

His “clear views and fearless stance,” which made him a “unifying symbol for all African freedom fighters,” won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, according to the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Though short in stature, Tutu was a giant of South African politics, notable for his drive, infectious laughter and witty critiques of apartheid’s absurdities. In one example, he told followers: “Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.” “He was South Africa’s Martin Luther King – a Christian clergyman who worked, non-violently, for racial justice and equality,” Steven Gish, author of a biography on Tutu, told Al Jazeera. “He never hated his oppressors and always believed in dialogue and appealing to people’s moral conscience.”

He received honorary doctorates from a number of leading universities in the USA, Britain, and Germany. According to Britannica online:

Tutu authored or coauthored numerous publications, including The Divine Intention (1982), a collection of his lectures; Hope and Suffering (1983), a collection of his sermons; No Future Without Forgiveness (1999), a memoir from his time as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time (2004), a collection of personal reflections; and Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference (2010), reflections on his beliefs about human nature. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Tutu received numerous honours, including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009), an award from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation that recognized his lifelong commitment to “speaking truth to power” (2012), and the Templeton Prize (2013).

Michele Sigg

Bibliography:

Nobel Lectures, Peace 1981-1990 , Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Irwin Abrams, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997.

Al Jazeera online, December 26, 2021. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/26/key-dates-in-the-life-ofsouth-african-cleric-desmond-tutu . Accessed January 17, 2022.

“Desmond Tutu profile.” The Elders website. https://theelders.org/profile/desmond-tutu . Accessed January 17, 2022.

“Desmond Tutu.” Britannica online, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Desmond-Tutu . Accessed January 17, 2022.

Michele Sigg is the executive director of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

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Archbishop desmond tutu, nobel prize for peace.

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I never doubted that we were going to be free because, ultimately, I knew there was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.

Desmond Tutu was born in Klerksdorp, in the South African state of Transvaal. The family moved to Johannesburg when he was 12, and he attended Johannesburg Bantu High School. Although he had planned to become a physician, his parents could not afford to send him to medical school. Tutu’s father was a teacher, he himself trained as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College, and graduated from the University of South Africa in 1954.

The government of South Africa did not extend the rights of citizenship to black South Africans. The National Party had risen to power on the promise of instituting a system of apartheid — complete separation of the races. All South Africans were legally assigned to an official racial group; each race was restricted to separate living areas and separate public facilities. Only white South Africans were permitted to vote in national elections. Black South Africans were only represented in the local governments of remote “tribal homelands.” Interracial marriage was forbidden, blacks were legally barred from certain jobs and prohibited from forming labor unions. Passports were required for travel within the country; critics of the system could be banned from speaking in public and subjected to house arrest.

When the government ordained a deliberately inferior system of education for black students, Desmond Tutu refused to cooperate. He could no longer work as a teacher, but he was determined to do something to improve the life of his disenfranchised people. On the advice of his bishop, he began to study for the Anglican priesthood. Tutu was ordained as a priest in the Anglican church in 1960. At the same time, the South African government began a program of forced relocation of black Africans and Asians from newly designated “white” areas. Millions were deported to the “homelands,” and only permitted to return as “guest workers.”

Desmond Tutu lived in England from 1962 to 1966, where he earned a master’s degree in theology. He taught theology in South Africa for the next five years and returned to England to serve as an assistant director of the World Council of Churches in London. In 1975 he became the first black African to serve as Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg. From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho. In 1978 he became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches.

This position gave Bishop Tutu a national platform to denounce the apartheid system as “evil and unchristian.” Tutu called for equal rights for all South Africans and a system of common education. He demanded the repeal of the oppressive passport laws and an end to forced relocation. Tutu encouraged nonviolent resistance to the apartheid regime and advocated an economic boycott of the country. The government revoked his passport to prevent him from traveling and speaking abroad, but his case soon drew the attention of the world. In the face of an international public outcry, the government was forced to restore his passport.

In 1984, Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, “not only as a gesture of support to him and to the South African Council of Churches of which he is leader, but also to all individuals and groups in South Africa who, with their concern for human dignity, fraternity and democracy, incite the admiration of the world.”

Two years later, Desmond Tutu was elected Archbishop of Cape Town. He was the first black African to serve in this position, which placed him at the head of the Anglican Church in South Africa, as the Archbishop of Canterbury is spiritual leader of the Church of England. International economic pressure and internal dissent forced the South African government to reform. In 1990, Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress was released after almost 27 years in prison. The following year the government began the repeal of racially discriminatory laws.

After the country’s first multi-racial elections in 1994, President Mandela appointed Archbishop Tutu to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, investigating the human rights violations of the previous 34 years. As always, the Archbishop counseled forgiveness and cooperation, rather than revenge for past injustice.

In 1996 he retired as Archbishop of Cape Town and was named Archbishop Emeritus. For two years, he was Visiting Professor of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Published collections of his speeches, sermons, and other writings include Crying in the Wilderness , Hope and Suffering , and The Rainbow People of God .

In 2007, Desmond Tutu joined former South African President Mandela, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, retired U.N Secretary General Kofi Annan, and former Irish President Mary Robinson to form The Elders, a private initiative mobilizing the experience of senior world leaders outside of the conventional diplomatic process. Tutu was named to chair the group. Carter and Tutu have traveled together to Darfur, Gaza, and Cyprus in an effort to resolve long-standing conflicts. Desmond Tutu’s historic accomplishments — and his continuing efforts to promote peace in the world — were formally recognized by the United States in 2009, when President Barack Obama named him to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Watch a tribute to Nobel Peace Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s life and work. Listen to former South African President Nelson Mandela, other Nobel Peace Prize recipients, and inspiring achievers speak about the leadership of Archbishop Tutu in post-apartheid South Africa in the film Just Call Me Arch.

“We received death threats, yes, but you see, when you are in a struggle, there are going to have to be casualties, and why should you be exempt?”

When Desmond Tutu became General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, he used his pulpit to decry the apartheid system of racial segregation. The South African government revoked his passport to prevent him from traveling, but Bishop Tutu refused to be silenced. International condemnation forced the government to rescind their decision. He had succeeded in drawing the world’s attention to the injustice of the apartheid system. In 1984, his contribution to the cause of racial equality in South Africa was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize.

As Archbishop of Cape Town, spiritual leader of all Anglican Christians in South Africa, his spiritual authority dealt a death blow to white supremacy in South Africa. As chairman of the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he helped his country to bind up its wounds, and choose forgiveness over revenge. He continues to raise his voice for peace and justice all over the world.

Being the Archbishop of Cape Town carried political responsibilities. Had you seen the black African’s struggle to end apartheid escalating from one of peace to a more forceful resistance?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: I wasn’t really a political animal in the sense of being outraged almost all of the time but when I was at Theological College — I went to Theological College in 1958, and the year when I was going to be ordained a deacon is the year of Sharpeville, the Sharpeville Massacre when police opened fire on peaceful demonstrators against the past laws. Then, you know, you began — I mean, you intensified a sense of outrage that you had, which had developed actually even at Teacher Training College.

You see, in 1955 the ANC had this passive resistance campaign which didn’t succeed. In 1960 you had Sharpeville. You kept thinking that our white compatriots would hear — you know, would hear the pleas that were being made. I mean, we had people like Chief Albert Luthuli, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, the first South African to do so, who had been president of the ANC. And remarkably moderate really in the kind of demands that they were making, but it was — it kept falling on deaf ears, and increasingly people felt that it was going to be more and more difficult to bring about these changes peacefully.

I mean, even people like Nelson Mandela. I mean, they were striving to work for those changes nonviolently, and when they began engaging in acts of sabotage, they were very careful to ensure that they were attacking installations and not people. They tried to avoid casualties as much as possible. And it was 1960 that changed them when, after Sharpeville, and they were banned — the ANC and the PAC were banned — that they decided there was no real hope of a nonviolent end to apartheid. They were forced to take on the armed struggle, but even at that time I was not articulate, and there was an evolution.

I was appointed Dean of Johannesburg in 1975. And that — we were sufficiently political, my wife and I, because up to that point the Dean of Johannesburg had been white and the deanery was in town. My wife and I, we were in London. When we were appointed we said we’re not going to ask for permission, which we might have got, to go and live in town and the permission under — I mean, it wasn’t a right. We said, “Well, we’ll live in Soweto.” And so that — we begin always by making a political statement even without articulating it in words.

And when I arrived I realized that I had been given a platform that was not readily available to many blacks and most of our leaders were either now in chains or in exile. And I said, “Well, I’m going to use this to seek to try to articulate our aspirations and the anguishes of our people.” And I was — I mean for some reason the press were very friendly. I mean virtually anything I said it got fairly wide publicity, which was a great help.

But the thing I think that thrust me possibly into the public consciousness, I had just been elected Bishop of Lesotho. I had gone there to become bishop and I went for a retreat. I don’t know — I mean, I don’t know what happened but it just seemed like God was saying to me, “You’ve got to write a letter to the Prime Minister.” And the letter wrote itself.

In May of 1976 you wrote a letter to the Prime Minister warning of a building tension among black South African youth over the government-imposed Bantu education. What was its significance leading up to the June 16, 1976 riots?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: I wrote the letter to the Prime Minister and told him that I was scared. I was scared because the mood in the townships was frightening. If they didn’t do something to make our people believe that they cared about our concerns I feared that we were going to have an eruption.

I sent off the letter. I probably made a technical mistake by giving it to a journalist before hearing from the Prime Minister because this journalist was working for a Sunday newspaper and gave it enormous press, and I think quite rightly the Prime Minister was annoyed that I had not given him the opportunity but never mind. He, the Prime Minister, dismissed my letter contemptuously. I wrote to him in May of 1976. I said, “I have a nightmarish fear that there was going to be an explosion if they didn’t do anything.” Well, they didn’t do anything and a month later the Soweto [uprising] happened.

The South African government for some odd reason had ignored my letter where I warned. I didn’t have any sort of premonition, although I felt there was something in the air, but when it happened, when June the 16th happened, 1976, it caught most of us really by surprise. We hadn’t expected that our young people would have had the courage. See, Bantu education had hoped that it was going to turn them into docile creatures, kowtowing to the white person, and not being able to say “boo” to a goose kind of thing, you know, and it was an amazing event when these schoolkids came out and said they were refusing to be taught in the medium of Afrikaans. That was — that was really symbolic of all of the oppression. Afrikaans was the language they felt of the oppressor, and protesting against Afrikaans was really protesting against the whole system of injustice and oppression where black people’s dignity was rubbed in the dust and trodden underfoot carelessly, and South Africa never became the same — we knew it was not going ever to be the same again, and these young people were amazing. They really were amazing.

What was it about these kids that makes you use the word “amazing?”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: I recall that on one or two occasions, I spoke to some of them and said, “You know, are you aware that if you continue to behave in this way, they will turn their dogs on you, they will whip you, they may detain you without trial, they will torture you in their jails, and they may even kill you?,” and it was almost like privata on the part of these kids because almost all of them said, “So what. It doesn’t matter if that happens to me, as long as it contributes to our struggle for freedom,” and I think 1994, when Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the first democratically elected president, vindicated them. It was the vindication of those 1977 remarkable kids.

When you first began to speak out publicly against the apartheid system as Bishop of Lesotho, there must have been people who said, “This is hopeless. It’s not going to make a difference. There’s nothing you can do that will ever change anything.” How did you cope with that?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Many of us had moments when we doubted that apartheid would be defeated, certainly not in our lifetime. But, I never had that sense. I knew in a way that was unshakable, because you see, when you look at something like Good Friday, and saw God dead on the cross, nothing could have been more hopeless than Good Friday. And then, Easter happens, and whammo! Death is done to death, and Jesus breaks the shackles of death and devastation, of darkness, of evil. And, from that moment on, you see, all of us are constrained to be prisoners of hope. If God could do this with that utterly devastating thing, the desolation of a Good Friday, of the cross, well, what could stop God then from bringing good out of this great evil of apartheid? So, I never doubted that ultimately we were going to be free because ultimately, I knew there was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.

And actually now having had the advantage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and being able to look at some of the records of what the apartheid government was doing, the thing that is surprising to me is why so many of us survived. I mean, how is it that they did not assassinate more of us? And it is in a sense a mystery unless, of course, you say, well, God does have very strange ways of working because, I mean, they could have — you know, I mean, people say, “Well, maybe you were saved by the fact that you were in the church and you — ” and I believe that that is true.

I really would get mad with God. I would say, “I mean, how in the name of everything that is good can you allow this or that to happen?” But I didn’t doubt that ultimately good, right, justice would prevail. That I said — there were times, of course, when you had to almost sort of whistle in the dark when you wished you could say to God, “God, we know you are running the show but why don’t you make it slightly more obvious that you are doing so?”

And I mean, you know, you look and you say today there really isn’t a cause today in the world that captures the imagination, the support, the commitment of people in the way that the anti-apartheid cause did. I mean, the anti-apartheid cause was global. You could go almost anywhere in the world and you’d be sure to find an anti-apartheid group there. We are beneficiaries of an incredible amount of loving. People were ready to be arrested. They were demonstrating on our behalf. People kept vigils on our behalf. I mean you see it now in some ways — well, even before Nelson Mandela was released in 1988, Trevor Huddleston, who was my mentor and was President of the Anti-Apartheid Movement suggested that young people should come on a kind of a pilgrimage which would culminate in Hyde Park Corner on the day or very close to the day of Nelson’s birthday, the 16th, I think the 16th of July, and young people responded. Young people who most of them were not born when Nelson Mandela went to jail, in 1988, and they flocked. There must have been at least a quarter million young people congregated in Hyde Park Corner in London and Trevor Huddleston said — this was Nelson’s 70th birthday — “Let this be his last birthday in jail.” Now that was ’78 — in ’88. It’s not too bad when you think that two years later he was out. But, you know, here was a man who could command so much reverence and support especially from people — young people who had never seen him, heard him, seen pictures of him, were not born when he went to jail. That was a measure of the support that we have had.

What I have to say really bowled me over was how quickly the change happened when it happened.

One moment, Nelson Mandela is in jail, and the next moment, he is walking, a free man. One moment, we are shackled as the oppressed of apartheid; the next, we are voting for the very first time. I was 63 when I voted for the first time in my life in the country of my birth. Nelson Mandela was 76 years of age. But it happened, it happened. It happened partly because the international community supported us. People prayed for us. People demonstrated on our behalf, especially young people. Students at universities and college campuses used to sit out in the baking sunshine to force their institutions to divest and the miracle happened. We became free because we were helped and we want to say a big “thank you” to the world. And, you can become free nonviolently.

Did you and Nelson Mandela meet for the first time after he was released from imprisonment in 1990?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: I had seen him only once before, before he got arrested, in the 1950s when he adjudicated at a debating contest, and I was part of that. I never saw him really again, although now our houses in Soweto are not so very far apart. In 1990, I think it’s the 11th of February, he came out and came to spend his first night in the house which was the official residence of the Archbishop of Cape Town, and I was the Archbishop of Cape Town! He was ensconced with the leadership of his party, the African National Congress, and now and again, they would be interrupted. There is a phone call. This is the White House, and there is a phone call. This is the Statehouse in Lusaka. I mean, he was getting telephone calls congratulating him and wishing him well, and he then had his first — on the Monday, he had his first press conference as a free man on the lawns of Bishop’s Court. Sort of, that was the extent of our meeting. I mean, I met him in the morning just to say “hi,” but what I do remember is he went around thanking the people, my staff, for, you know, people who had cooked their meals. He’s always been gracious in that kind of way, but this is sort of the first time I saw his charm working on people.

There were times when you were subjected at the least to fierce criticism, and there were times when you must have feared for your life. How do you deal with that?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: We received death threats, yes, but you see when you are in a struggle, there are going to have to be casualties, and why should you be exempt? But I often said, “Look, here, God, if I’m doing your work, then you jolly well are going to have to look after me!” And God did God’s stuff. But it was — I mean people prayed. People prayed. You know, there’s a wonderful image in the Book of the Prophet Zechariah, where he speaks about Jerusalem not having conventional walls, and God says to this overpopulated Jerusalem, “I will be like a wall of fire ’round you.” Frequently in the struggle, we experienced a like wall of fire — people all over the world surrounding us with love. And you know that image of the Prophet Elijah — he is surrounded by enemies, and his servant is scared, and Elijah says to God, “Open his eyes so that he should see,” and God opens the eyes of the servant, and the servant looks, and he sees hosts and hosts and hosts of angels. And the prophet says to him, “You see? Those who are for us are many times more than those against us.”

When you first began, you knew what you were trying to do, and you perhaps had some idea of what you thought it would take to achieve this goal. Now that the goal of ending apartheid and creating democracy in South Africa is achieved, what do you know now that you didn’t know before?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: I have come to realize the extraordinary capacity for evil that all of us have because we have now heard the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and there have been revelations of horrendous atrocities that people have committed. Any and every one of us could have perpetrated those atrocities. The people who were perpetrators of the most gruesome things didn’t have horns, didn’t have tails. They were ordinary human beings like you and me. That’s the one thing. Devastating! But the other, more exhilarating than anything that I have ever experienced — and something I hadn’t expected — to discover that we have an extraordinary capacity for good. People who suffered untold misery, people who should have been riddled with bitterness, resentment and anger come to the Commission and exhibit an extraordinary magnanimity and nobility of spirit in their willingness to forgive, and to say, “Hah! Human beings actually are fundamentally good.” Human beings are fundamentally good. The aberration, in fact, is the evil one, for God created us ultimately for God, for goodness, for laughter, for joy, for compassion, for caring.

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Desmond Tutu, Anti-Apartheid Campaigner Who Tried to Heal the World, Dies at 90

S outh African anti-apartheid campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu , one of the world’s most revered religious leaders, died in Cape Town on Sunday at age 90, bringing to an end an extraordinary life filled with courage, love and a passion for justice.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Tutu’s death, saying it marks “another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa.” Fellow anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela died in 2013, and F.W. de Klerk—the last white South African president, who worked to dismantle the South African government’s apartheid system— died in November .

Ramaphosa paid tribute to Tutu’s work, both in ending apartheid and in fighting for human rights everywhere: “A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice and violence under apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people around the world.”

Tutu had been hospitalized several times in recent years following a 1997 prostate cancer diagnosis.

A globally recognized icon of peaceful resistance to injustice, Tutu is best remembered for his courageous leadership of the Anglican Church in South Africa even as he spearheaded the fight against apartheid. Like fellow human rights activists Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr., he used his religion as a platform to advocate for equality and freedom for all South Africans, regardless of race. He often noted that the apartheid system, while devastating for South Africa’s blacks, was nearly as corrosive to the spiritual, physical and political development of the white population it was supposed to protect. “Whites, in being those who oppress others, dehumanized themselves,” he was quoted as saying .

Deftly wielding the Christian principles of love and forgiveness as a weapon in his fight to dismantle apartheid, he regularly, and publicly, prayed for the wellbeing of his opponents, even those who were most vociferous in their attacks against him. But even as he preached forgiveness, he was uncompromising when it came to his fundamental moral philosophy. “You are either in favour of evil, or you are in favour of good. You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can’t be neutral,” he wrote in a statement to the United States Congress in 1984. He expanded his thinking in later speeches and sermons, noting that “If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

READ MORE: The Secret to Joy, According to the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu

It was a philosophy that continued to animate his activism long after the end of apartheid. When full democracy finally came to South Africa in 1994, Tutu applied his elder-statesman stature and boundless energy to advocate for social justice and equality globally, taking on issues of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, climate change and the right of the terminally ill to die with dignity. He became a globe-trotting peace advocate, pushing for justice, freedom and an end to conflict in Israel-Palestine, Rwanda, Burma and Iraq. He campaigned against the United States’ illegal detention of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and became an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights, even as he risked conflict with members of his own church. “Opposing apartheid was a matter of justice,” he said in 2006 . “Opposing discrimination against women is a matter of justice. Opposing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a matter of justice.” Though Tutu was routinely confronted with some of the most egregious aspects of human behavior at home and in his travels , he never lost his faith in his fellow man. “Despite all of the ghastliness in the world, human beings are made for goodness,” he once said.

His sermons, unfailingly lucid, penetrating and inspired, went beyond the homily of the day to encompass the news of the world. A tremendous orator, he wove jokes, observations and passion into his speeches, deftly conducting his audiences into a state of uproar over injustice. Once there, he gently directed the heightened emotions towards constructive action. As the title of his authorized biography, published to great acclaim in 2006, put it: He was a rabble rouser for peace . As Mandela said: “Sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humor, Desmond Tutu’s voice will always be the voice of the voiceless.”

Born on Oct. 7, 1931, to a school headmaster and a domestic servant in Klerksdorp, South Africa, Desmond Mpilo Tutu grew up to become a teacher like his father. But when the South African government started instituting discriminatory education policies that restricted black South Africans’ employment opportunities, he quit in disgust. In 1958 he enrolled at a theological college instead, and in 1961 was ordained as priest in the Anglican church. A year later he left South Africa to continue his studies in London, where he experienced, for the first time, a life of freedom from apartheid’s race-based restrictions. “I’m sure there was racism there,” he noted in his biography. “But we were protected by the church. It was marvelous. We didn’t have to carry our passes anymore and we did not have to look around to see if we could use that bath or that exit. It was a tremendously liberating thing.”

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Tutu returned to Africa in 1975, and became the Anglican Bishop of the country of Lesotho. Two years later he returned to South Africa, where he was elected to become the first Black secretary general of the South African Council of Churches. His elevated position in the church enabled him to advocate for an end of apartheid while granting him a certain degree of protection from the South African authorities. With most of the leaders of the anti-apartheid movement jailed or in exile, Tutu become the movement’s de facto head, and a leading spokesperson for the rights of Black South Africans. His unstinting efforts to draw national and international attention to apartheid’s discrimination earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 . The awards committee said it was meant, “not only as a gesture of support to him and to the South African Council of Churches of which he was a leader, but also to all individuals and groups in South Africa who, with their concern for human dignity, fraternity and democracy, incite the admiration of the world.”

Two years later he become the Archbishop of Cape Town, the first Black man to preside over the city’s two million-strong congregation. Right-wing white Christians protested outside the cathedral at his investiture, calling it the “death of the Anglican church.” As the church’s official residence was located in an area reserved for white residents only, the apartheid government asked him to apply for the status of “honorary white” so that he could reside on the premises. He refused.

Tutu’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize helped catapult South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement into a global cause. Nearly a decade’s worth of eloquent advocacy by Tutu and his supporters around the world brought the country’s government to its knees. In 1993 the apartheid system ended, South African blacks were given the vote, and in 1994 they elected Nelson Mandela as their first Black president. Tutu had the honor of introducing the new president to the nation. He has described that moment as one of the greatest in his life. “I said to God, ‘God, if I die now, I don’t really mind.’”

But Mandela had other plans for “The Arch,” as he was affectionately called, appointing him as head of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission tasked with investigating human rights abuses committed by both sides during apartheid. Tutu presided over the two and a half-year-long proceeding with his trademark grace, compassion and forgiveness, even though he sometimes collapsed into anguished tears upon hearing details of some of the worst atrocities.

READ MORE: 10 Questions for Desmond Tutu

Often called the “moral conscience of South Africa,” Tutu was also known to be a bit of a scold. He held all of the nation’s leaders to the highest standards, and made enemies of many in the African National Congress for his well-deserved criticisms of their failings. He derided Mandela’s successor, President Thabo Mbeki, for his denial of the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, and took on President Jacob Zuma for his “moral failings.” Even the leaders of neighboring countries were not spared: Zimbabwe’s former president, Robert Mugabe , once described Tutu as “an evil little bishop” for Tutu’s sermons against the Zimbabwean dictator’s kleptocratic rule.

In 2007 Tutu turned his exacting gaze against the Anglican Church, rebuking religious conservatives among the clergy for their attitudes against homosexuality. He told the BBC that the Church had failed to demonstrate that God is “welcoming,” and that he had felt saddened and “ashamed.” “If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God,” he said. Later on he told supporters in Cape Town that he “would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven…. I mean I would much rather go to the other place.”

As a founding member of the Elders , an organization of former world leaders who work together to promote human rights and world peace, Tutu continued on his quest to put an end to injustice until he decided to retire from public life in 2010. “Instead of growing old gracefully, at home with my family, reading and writing and praying and thinking, too much of my time has been spent at airports and in hotels,” he said at the time. “The time has now come to slow down, to sip rooibos tea with my beloved wife in the afternoons, to watch cricket, to travel to visit my children and grandchildren, rather than to conferences and conventions and university campuses.”

Nonetheless, he emerged from his seclusion from time to time when he found it absolutely necessary. In 2017, he penned a chagrined letter to fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, calling on her to speak up for the rights of Rohingya in Myanmar , saying that said the “unfolding horror” and “ethnic cleansing” of the country’s Muslim minority had forced him to speak out. “I am now elderly, decrepit and formally retired, but breaking my vow to remain silent on public affairs out of profound sadness,” he wrote in a letter he posted on social media. “If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep.”

Tutu leaves behind his wife, Nomalizo Leah Tutu, four children, several grandchildren and a nation bereft of one of the most articulate voices for justice the world has ever seen.

In a 2014 speech advocating for the right to assisted death, the archbishop described the peaceful death and joyous funeral he hoped to have for himself. He said that he would like to be cremated, despite knowing that it made some people uncomfortable, and that he would like to have his ashes interred at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. He wanted a simple coffin, he said, one that would serve as an example to others of the importance of frugal funerals: “My concern is not just about affordability; it’s my strong preference that money should be spent on the living.”

Most of all, he concluded, he wanted his death to be seen not as an occasion for sadness, but as the natural conclusion to the arc of his extraordinary life. “Dying is part of life,” he said. “We have to die. The Earth cannot sustain us and the millions of people that came before us. We have to make way for those who are yet to be born.”

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Remembering Desmond Tutu’s life and legacy

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Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning icon, died Sunday at 90. Tutu’s passionate voice helped end South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime that oppressed its Black majority for decades. World leaders, South Africans and people around the globe mourned his death and praised the life he lived and the legacy he leaves behind, including his more recent work as an activist for racial justice and LGBTQ rights. NewsHour Special Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault joins.

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Desmond Tutu:

We raise our hands and we say 'we will be free, all of us, Black and white together, for we are marching to freedom.'

Michael Hill:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was an Anglican bishop and a leader of the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. Born in 1931, he followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a high school teacher. He then switched paths to become an Anglican priest. Tutu was on the frontline fighting for freedom and equality in South Africa, where racially segregated apartheid began in 1948.

We know, we know, we shall overcome the evil.

In 1984, tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in advocating for non-violent protest to end the brutal practice of white-minority rule.

Welcome our brand new state president, out of the box, Nelson Mandela!

In 1994, South Africa elected its first black president Nelson Mandela. Tutu said voting in that democratic election was "like falling in love." The two were counterparts in the struggle for freedom.

After Mandela's election, the Archbishop chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, investigating crimes of the apartheid era. He delivered the final report to Mandela in 1998.

Tutu advocated for racial justice and LGBTQ rights globally. Tutu died from complications from prostate cancer, which he was first diagnosed with in 1997. When asked how he would like to be remembered, Tutu answered:

He loved, he laughed, he cried, he was forgiven, he forgave.

For more on the life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I spoke with NewsHour Special Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Thank you so much for joining us. I have to ask you this where would the end of apartheid be if it had not been for Desmond Tutu?

Charlayne Hunter-Gault:

Well, we may still be involved in it, but actually, I think that one of the things that Desmond Tutu, and I am so sorry to hear he has transitioned as the South Africans say they never used the term dead or death, but I think that so much changed as a result of his work. And yet, like in America, we go around in circles, sometimes trying to get a more perfect union. And so I think that at the time that Archbishop Tutu was very active, especially with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it was the time to set South Africa on a new path. And sometimes, as you would know, the paths have rubbish on them. But his principles were those that enabled those who cared about the things that he did to sweep away that rubbish in the past. So it never goes away. South Africa is having a rough time today as we are here in America, but there are people who have given us lessons to survive even the worst of times. And he was one of those.

You know, he chaired this Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa on behalf of the president at the time, Nelson Mandela. And he wrote in one of his reports, Tutu did, not to judge the morality of people's actions, but to act as an incubation chamber for national healing, reconciliation and forgiveness. But that didn't sit well with a lot of South Africans, though.

Well, it didn't, but it didn't dissuade him from, you know, as a preacher's kid, a PK, which I am, I always understood what moved Archbishop Tutu. And it was his faith. And his faith taught him to have faith in people. And those could be people whom he wanted to help have support him, but others who he knew it was going to be a challenge to achieve. And so as we have here in America today, we have a younger generation that wants things to happen a lot faster, the equality that we've been promised in our constitution. And the same is true in South Africa. So you had people on all sides of the, shall we say, the freedom equation. But he understood all of that and he never criticized them. He always said he understood their impatience. And yet he continued on his path toward reconciliation because he thought that that was probably the most important thing that could happen in the country, reconciliation. And although not everybody bought into it, he did help prepare the country for one of the greatest presidents who ever lived, Nelson Mandela. And he also helped to ease the transition in so many ways.

Charlayne, tell us, what was it like when you first met him in his younger days and you were in South Africa?

I think he was about six or seven years old at the time and had a very young spirit. In fact, when he was running the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we learned from him that he had prostate cancer. And he said that probably the best kind of healer is a wounded healer. And what surprised me more than anything was as challenging as the country was at the time and as serious as the position that he had to determine what South Africans could do going forward, he was always positive and he had a great sense of humor. I mean, you can find pictures of him just laughing. And that's what struck me often in the meetings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which I attended. Although it was all very serious, he would find humor in some things, and I think that helped in many ways to ease the tension. So he was a man of many different attitudes and positions, and I think all of that made him a very successful person in the efforts that he was trying to achieve. And we'll always remember him for what he contributed to a new South Africa.

We've been speaking with Charlayne Hunter-Gault on the passing of Desmond Tutu. Charlayne, thank you.

Thank you for having me. It's a real pleasure to talk about such a great man.

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who helped end South Africa's apartheid, dies at 90

NPR's A Martinez talks to Rev. Michael Battle, director of the Desmond Tutu Center at General Theological Seminary in New York, about Tutu's legacy. The Nobel Peace Prize winner died over the weekend.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Desmond Tutu Biography

Birthday: October 7 , 1931 ( Libra )

Born In: Klerksdorp, South Africa

Desmond Tutu was a South African social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop, who served as the first black Archbishop of Cape Town. A leading spokesperson for the rights of black South Africans, he helped to draw international attention to the sorry state of apartheid in South Africa. Born into an impoverished family in Transvaal, he grew up watching people of color being discriminated against for no fault of theirs. Even though he was young, it did not take him long to realize that it was wrong to mistreat someone just because their skin color was different. As a teenager, he aspired to be a doctor but could not pursue medical studies due to lack of funds. He then studied to become a teacher. He worked for a few years during which he tried his best to encourage his students to become the best that they can be. Alongside he also studied theology and was ordained as a priest. At that time South Africa was reeling under apartheid and black South Africans were grossly discriminated against in all aspects of life. Frustrated, he became active in the anti-apartheid movement and soon emerged as outspoken advocate of black rights. He soon garnered international fame for his works and was honored with the 1984 Nobel Prize for Peace.

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Also Known As: Desmond Mpilo Tutu

Died At Age: 90

Spouse/Ex-: Leah Nomalizo Tutu

father: Zachariah Tutu

mother: Aletta

children: Mpho Andrea, Naomi Nontombi, Theresa Thandeka, Trevor Thamsanqa

Born Country: South Africa

Nobel Peace Prize Theologians

Height: 5'10" (178 cm ), 5'10" Males

Died on: December 26 , 2021

place of death: Cape Town, South Africa

Notable Alumni: Pretoria Bantu Normal College, St Peter's Theological College

Cause of Death: Cancer

Founder/Co-Founder: Tutu Foundation for Development and Relief

education: King's College London, University Of South Africa, Pretoria Bantu Normal College, St Peter's Theological College

awards: 1987 - Pacem in Terris Award 1992 - Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award 2010 - Nautilus Book Award

1996 - Archbishop of Canterbury's Award for Outstanding Service to the Anglican Communion 2009 - Spiritual Leadership Award 1984 - Nobel Peace Prize award

You wanted to know

What impact did desmond tutu have on the anti-apartheid movement in south africa.

Desmond Tutu played a crucial role in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa by advocating for nonviolent protests and international sanctions against the apartheid regime. His efforts helped raise awareness about the injustices of apartheid and contributed to the eventual dismantling of the system.

How did Desmond Tutu contribute to reconciliation and peace in post-apartheid South Africa?

After the end of apartheid, Desmond Tutu chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which aimed to address the injustices of the past through public hearings and the granting of amnesty in exchange for truth-telling. This process helped promote healing and reconciliation in South Africa.

What was Desmond Tutu's stance on social justice and human rights issues?

Desmond Tutu was a vocal advocate for social justice and human rights, both in South Africa and globally. He spoke out against injustice, discrimination, and oppression, and consistently championed the rights of marginalized and oppressed communities.

How did Desmond Tutu use his position as a religious leader to promote social change?

Desmond Tutu, a prominent Anglican bishop, used his platform to advocate for social change and challenge the apartheid regime in South Africa. He drew on his Christian faith to emphasize the principles of equality, justice, and compassion in his activism.

What was Desmond Tutu's role in the global peace and reconciliation efforts?

Desmond Tutu was a respected figure in global peace and reconciliation efforts, using his influence to mediate conflicts and promote dialogue among different groups. He was involved in various peace initiatives and initiatives to foster understanding and cooperation on an international level.

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His emergence as an outspoken leader in the anti-apartheid movement and his growing international stature won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Following this, South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement gained international support and Tutu was elevated to the status of a much respected world leader.

In 1993, apartheid in South Africa finally came to an end, due in no small part to Tutu’s relentless campaigning and able leadership. The nation’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, was elected in 1994, and Tutu was given the honor of introducing the new president to the citizens.

After the end of apartheid, he was selected by President Mandela to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996.

Desmond Tutu married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane, a teacher, in 1955. They had four children.

Desmond Tutu died in Cape Town, South Africa, on December 26 , 2021. He was 90 years old.

He authored seven collections of sermons and other writings.

He was one of the patrons of The Forgiveness Project and delivered the charity's inaugural annual lecture in 2010.

See the events in life of Desmond Tutu in Chronological Order

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• Desmond Tutu - Nobel Lecture

Desmond Tutu

Nobel lecture.

Nobel Lecture * , December 11, 1984

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before I left South Africa, a land I love passionately, we had an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee of the South African Council of Churches with the leaders of our member churches. We called the meeting because of the deepening crisis in our land, which has claimed nearly 200 lives this year alone. We visited some of the trouble-spots on the Witwatersrand. I went with others to the East Rand. We visited the home of an old lady. She told us that she looked after her grandson and the children of neighbors while their parents were at work. One day the police chased some pupils who had been boycotting classes, but they disappeared between the township houses. The police drove down the old lady’s street. She was sitting at the back of the house in her kitchen, whilst her charges were playing in the front of the house in the yard. Her daughter rushed into the house, calling out to her to come quickly. The old lady dashed out of the kitchen into the living room. Her grandson had fallen just inside the door, dead. He had been shot in the back by the police. He was 6 years old. A few weeks later, a white mother, trying to register her black servant for work, drove through a black township. Black rioters stoned her car and killed her baby of a few months old, the first white casualty of the current unrest in South Africa. Such deaths are two too many. These are part of the high cost of apartheid.

Everyday in a squatter camp near Cape Town, called K.T.C., the authorities have been demolishing flimsy plastic shelters which black mothers have erected because they were taking their marriage vows seriously. They have been reduced to sitting on soaking mattresses, with their household effects strewn round their feet, and whimpering babies on their laps, in the cold Cape winter rain. Everyday the authorities have carried out these callous demolitions. What heinous crime have these women committed, to be hounded like criminals in this manner? All they have wanted is to be with their husbands, the fathers of their children. Everywhere else in the world they would be highly commended, but in South Africa, a land which claims to be Christian, and which boasts a public holiday called Family Day, these gallant women are treated so inhumanely, and yet all they want is to have a decent and stable family life. Unfortunately, in the land of their birth, it is a criminal offence for them to live happily with their husbands and the fathers of their children. Black family life is thus being undermined, not accidentally, but by deliberate Government policy. It is part of the price human beings, God’s children, are called to pay for apartheid. An unacceptable price.

I come from a beautiful land, richly endowed by God with wonderful natural resources, wide expanses, rolling mountains, singing birds, bright shining stars out of blue skies, with radiant sunshine, golden sunshine. There is enough of the good things that come from God’s bounty, there is enough for everyone, but apartheid has confirmed some in their selfishness, causing them to grasp greedily a disproportionate share, the lion’s share, because of their power. They have taken 87 of the land, though being only about 20 of our population. The rest have had to make do with the remaining 13. Apartheid has decreed the politics of exclusion. 73 of the population is excluded from any meaningful participation in the political decision-making processes of the land of their birth. The new constitution, making provision of three chambers, for whites, coloreds, and Indians, mentions blacks only once, and thereafter ignores them completely. Thus this new constitution, lauded in parts of the West as a step in the right direction, entrenches racism and ethnicity. The constitutional committees are composed in the ratio of 4 whites to 2 coloreds and 1 Indian. 0 black. 2 + 1 can never equal, let alone be more than, 4. Hence this constitution perpetuates by law and entrenches white minority rule. Blacks are expected to exercise their political ambitions in unviable, poverty-stricken, arid, bantustan homelands, ghettoes of misery, inexhaustible reservoirs of cheap black labor, bantustans into which South Africa is being balkanized. Blacks are systematically being stripped of their South African citizenship and being turned into aliens in the land of their birth. This is apartheid’s final solution, just as Nazism had its final solution for the Jews in Hitler’s Aryan madness. The South African Government is smart. Aliens can claim but very few rights, least of all political rights.

In pursuance of apartheid’s ideological racist dream, over 3.000.000 of God’s children have been uprooted from their homes, which have been demolished, whilst they have then been dumped in the bantustan homeland resettlement camps. I say dumped advisedly: only things or rubbish is dumped, not human beings. Apartheid has, however, ensured that God’s children, just because they are black, should be treated as if they were things, and not as of infinite value as being created in the image of God. These dumping grounds are far from where work and food can be procured easily. Children starve, suffer from the often irreversible consequences of malnutrition – this happens to them not accidentally, but by deliberate Government policy. They starve in a land that could be the bread basket of Africa, a land that normally is a net exporter of food.

The father leaves his family in the bantustan homeland, there eking out a miserable existence, whilst he, if he is lucky, goes to the so-called white man’s town as a migrant, to live an unnatural life in a single sex hostel for 11 months of the year, being prey there to prostitution, drunkenness, and worse. This migratory labor policy is declared Government policy, and has been condemned, even by the white Dutch Reformed Church, 1 not noted for being quick to criticize the Government, as a cancer in our society. This cancer, eating away at the vitals of black family life, is deliberate Government policy. It is part of the cost of apartheid, exorbitant in terms of human suffering.

Apartheid has spawned discriminatory education, such as Bantu Education, education for serfdom, ensuring that the Government spends only about one tenth on one black child per annum for education what it spends on a white child. It is education that is decidedly separate and unequal. It is to be wantonly wasteful of human resources, because so many of God’s children are prevented, by deliberate Government policy, from attaining to their fullest potential. South Africa is paying a heavy price already for this iniquitous policy because there is a desperate shortage of skilled manpower, a direct result of the short-sighted schemes of the racist regime. It is a moral universe that we inhabit, and good and right equity matter in the universe of the God we worship. And so, in this matter, the South African Government and its supporters are being properly hoisted with their own petard.

Apartheid is upheld by a phalanx of iniquitous laws, such as the Population Registration Act, which decrees that all South Africans must be classified ethnically, and duly registered according to these race categories. Many times, in the same family one child has been classified white whilst another, with a slightly darker hue, has been classified colored, with all the horrible consequences for the latter of being shut out from membership of a greatly privileged caste. There have, as a result, been several child suicides. This is too high a price to pay for racial purity, for it is doubtful whether any end, however desirable, can justify such a means. There are laws, such as the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, which regard marriages between a white and a person of another race as illegal. Race becomes an impediment to a valid marriage. Two persons who have fallen in love are prevented by race from consummating their love in the marriage bond. Something beautiful is made to be sordid and ugly. The Immorality Act decrees that fornication and adultery are illegal if they happen between a white and one of another race. The police are reduced to the level of peeping Toms to catch couples red-handed. Many whites have committed suicide rather than face the disastrous consequences that follow in the train of even just being charged under this law. The cost is too great and intolerable.

Such an evil system, totally indefensible by normally acceptable methods, relies on a whole phalanx of draconian laws such as the security legislation which is almost peculiar to South Africa. There are the laws which permit the indefinite detention of persons whom the Minister of Law and Order has decided are a threat to the security of the State. They are detained at his pleasure, in solitary confinement, without access to their family, their own doctor, or a lawyer. That is severe punishment when the evidence apparently available to the Minister has not been tested in an open court – perhaps it could stand up to such rigorous scrutiny, perhaps not; we are never to know. It is a far too convenient device for a repressive regime, and the minister would have to be extra special not to succumb to the temptation to circumvent the awkward process of testing his evidence in an open court, and thus he lets his power under the law to be open to the abuse where he is both judge and prosecutor. Many, too many, have died mysteriously in detention. All this is too costly in terms of human lives. The minister is able, too, to place people under banning orders without being subjected to the annoyance of the checks and balances of due process. A banned person for 3 or 5 years becomes a non-person, who cannot be quoted during the period of her banning order. She cannot attend a gathering, which means more than one other person. Two persons together talking to a banned person are a gathering! She cannot attend the wedding or funeral of even her own child without special permission. She must be at home from 6:00 PM of one day to 6:00 AM of the next and on all public holidays, and from 6:00 PM on Fridays until 6:00 AM on Mondays for 3 years. She cannot go on holiday outside the magisterial area to which she has been confined. She cannot go to the cinema, nor to a picnic. That is severe punishment, inflicted without the evidence allegedly justifying it being made available to the banned person, nor having it scrutinized in a court of law. It is a serious erosion and violation of basic human rights, of which blacks have precious few in the land of their birth. They do not enjoy the rights of freedom of movement and association. They do not enjoy freedom of security of tenure, the right to participate in the making of decisions that affect their lives. In short, this land, richly endowed in so many ways, is sadly lacking in justice.

Once a Zambian and a South African, it is said, were talking. The Zambian then boasted about their Minister of Naval Affairs. The South African asked, “But you have no navy, no access to the sea. How then can you have a Minister of Naval Affairs?” The Zambian retorted, “Well, in South Africa you have a Minister of Justice, don’t you?”

It is against this system that our people have sought to protest peacefully since 1912 at least, with the founding of the African National Congress. They have used the conventional methods of peaceful protest – petitions, demonstrations, deputations, and even a passive resistance campaign. A tribute to our people’s commitment to peaceful change is the fact that the only South Africans to win the Nobel Peace Prize are both black. Our people are peace-loving to a fault. The response of the authorities has been an escalating intransigence and violence, the violence of police dogs, tear gas, detention without trial, exile, and even death. Our people protested peacefully against the Pass Laws in 1960, and 69 of them were killed on March 21, 1960, at Sharpeville, many shot in the back running away. Our children protested against inferior education, singing songs and displaying placards and marching peacefully. Many in 1976, on June 16th and subsequent times, were killed or imprisoned. Over 500 people died in that uprising. Many children went into exile. The whereabouts of many are unknown to their parents. At present, to protest that self-same discriminatory education, and the exclusion of blacks from the new constitutional dispensation, the sham local black government, rising unemployment, increased rents and General Sales Tax, our people have boycotted and demonstrated. They have staged a successful two-day stay away. Over 150 people have been killed. It is far too high a price to pay. There has been little revulsion or outrage at this wanton destruction of human life in the West. In parenthesis, can somebody please explain to me something that has puzzled me. When a priest goes missing and is subsequently found dead, the media in the West carry his story in very extensive coverage. 2 I am glad that the death of one person can cause so much concern. But in the self-same week when this priest is found dead, the South African Police kill 24 blacks who had been participating in the protest, and 6.000 blacks are sacked for being similarly involved, and you are lucky to get that much coverage. Are we being told something I do not want to believe, that we blacks are expendable and that blood is thicker than water, that when it comes to the crunch, you cannot trust whites, that they will club together against us? I don’t want to believe that is the message being conveyed to us.

Be that as it may, we see before us a land bereft of much justice, and therefore without peace and security. Unrest is endemic, and will remain an unchanging feature of the South African scene until apartheid, the root cause of it all, is finally dismantled. At this time, the Army is being quartered on the civilian population. There is a civil war being waged. South Africans are on either side. When the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress 3 were banned in 1960, they declared that they had no option but to carry out the armed struggle. We in the South African Council of Church have said we are opposed to all forms of violence – that of a repressive and unjust system, and that of those who seek to overthrow that system. However, we have added that we understand those who say they have had to adopt what is a last resort for them. Violence is not being introduced into the South African situation de novo from outside by those who are called terrorists or freedom fighters, depending on whether you are oppressed or an oppressor. The South African situation is violent already, and the primary violence is that of apartheid, the violence of forced population removals, of inferior education, of detention without trial, of the migratory labor system, etc.

There is war on the border of our country. South African faces fellow South African. South African soldiers are fighting against Namibians who oppose the illegal occupation of their country by South Africa, which has sought to extend its repressive system of apartheid, unjust and exploitative.

There is no peace in Southern Africa. There is no peace because there is no justice. There can be no real peace and security until there be first justice enjoyed by all the inhabitants of that beautiful land. The Bible knows nothing about peace without justice, for that would be crying “peace, peace, where there is no peace”. God’s Shalom, peace, involves inevitably righteousness, justice, wholeness, fullness of life, participation in decision-making, goodness, laughter, joy, compassion, sharing and reconciliation.

I have spoken extensively about South Africa, first because it is the land I know best, but because it is also a microcosm of the world and an example of what is to be found in other lands in differing degree – when there is injustice, invariably peace becomes a casualty. In El Salvador, in Nicaragua, and elsewhere in Latin America, there have been repressive regimes which have aroused opposition in those countries. Fellow citizens are pitted against one another, sometimes attracting the unhelpful attention and interest of outside powers, who want to extend their spheres of influence. We see this in the Middle East, in Korea, in the Philippines, in Kampuchea, in Vietnam, in Ulster, in Afghanistan, in Mozambique, in Angola, in Zimbabwe, behind the Iron Curtain.

Because there is global insecurity, nations are engaged in a mad arms race, spending billions of dollars wastefully on instruments of destruction, when millions are starving. And yet, just a fraction of what is expended so obscenely on defense budgets would make the difference in enabling God’s children to fill their stomachs, be educated, and given the chance to lead fulfilled and happy lives. We have the capacity to feed ourselves several times over, but we are daily haunted by the spectacle of the gaunt dregs of humanity shuffling along in endless queues, with bowls to collect what the charity of the world has provided, too little too late. When will we learn, when will the people of the world get up and say, Enough is enough. God created us for fellowship. God created us so that we should form the human family, existing together because we were made for one another. We are not made for an exclusive self-sufficiency but for interdependence, and we break the law of our being at our peril. When will we learn that an escalated arms race merely escalates global insecurity? We are now much closer to a nuclear holocaust than when our technology and our spending were less.

Unless we work assiduously so that all of God’s children, our brothers and sisters, members of our one human family, all will enjoy basic human rights, the right to a fulfilled life, the right of movement, of work, the freedom to be fully human, with a humanity measured by nothing less than the humanity of Jesus Christ Himself, then we are on the road inexorably to self-destruction, we are not far from global suicide; and yet it could be so different.

When will we learn that human beings are of infinite value because they have been created in the image of God, and that it is a blasphemy to treat them as if they were less than this and to do so ultimately recoils on those who do this? In dehumanizing others, they are themselves dehumanized. Perhaps oppression dehumanizes the oppressor as much as, if not more than, the oppressed. They need each other to become truly free, to become human. We can be human only in fellowship, in community, in koinonia, in peace.

Let us work to be peacemakers, those given a wonderful share in Our Lord’s ministry of reconciliation. If we want peace, so we have been told, let us work for justice. Let us beat our swords into ploughshares.

God calls us to be fellow workers with Him, so that we can extend His Kingdom of Shalom, of justice, of goodness, of compassion, of caring, of sharing, of laughter, joy and reconciliation, so that the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. Amen. Then there will be a fulfillment of the wonderful vision in the Revelation of St. John the Divine (Rev. 6:9ff):

9. After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, 10. And cried with a loud voice saying, “Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb”. 11. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God 12. saying, “Amen; Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen”.

* The lecture is reprinted in Tutu’s Rainbow People of God as “Apartheid’s ‘Final Solution'”, using a phrase from the address.

1 The white Dutch Reformed Church was the principal church of the Afrikaner ruling minority.

2. Tutu refers to a recent event in Poland, when Father Jerzy Popieluszko was murdered by the Secret Police in October 1984.

3. The African National Congress (ANC), established in 1912, of which the Nobel laureate Albert Lutuli had been President-General, wanted a racially just South Africa of blacks and whites. The “Africanists” split off to establish the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), which wanted government “of the African, by the African, for the African”.

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