Cape Town, Dec 26 (Agency) One of the world’s most respected spiritual and human rights leaders, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a living testament to faith in action, insuppressible in his opposition against the evils of racism, oppression, intolerance, and injustice not just during apartheid South Africa, but wherever in the world he saw moral wrongs, especially impacting the most vulnerable and voiceless in society. Although he was a Christian leader in his official work, atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and people of all religions have been led and guided by him. Every public action that he took was based in his deep Christian faith and his personification of Ubuntu which gave his words and actions immense moral gravitas. From his stance on non-violence but in favour of sanctions in the struggle against apartheid, his criticisms of the ANC’s excesses, his support for antiretroviral treatment for people with HIV during the Thabo Mbeki era, his opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, his denunciation of Robert Mugabe, to his outspoken support of Palestinian rights, his uncompromising message of love for gay people despite conservatism in the church, and his support for assisted dying, he was a lifelong fighter for human rights and against oppression.
During the 1980s, when Nelson Mandela was in prison and silenced by the National Party, Tutu was the most prominent global voice of the anti-apartheid struggle. Like Mandela, he was till his dying day committed to a vision of a non-racial South Africa without economic inequality and poverty. Desmond Tutu was born in Klerksdorp in 1932. He first entered the teaching profession. A formative experience was when an Anglican monk, Father Trevor Huddleston, doffed his hat to the young Tutu’s mother as they stood together at a bus stop in Soweto. This helped Tutu decide to enter the priesthood. He was trained at St Peter’s Priory by the Community of the Resurrection of which Huddleston was a member. This community, with its emphasis on the sacramental life focusing on the incarnation of Christ, was to be the foundation of Tutu’s spirituality, which in turn informed his political activism. For Tutu, apartheid, a system which defined humanity on the basis of colour, was a blasphemy. He became one of its most outspoken opponents in the 1970s, leading protests and civil disobedience against the government. In response the National Party tried to paint Tutu as a political opportunist. He rose to become Bishop of Lesotho, then General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. In 1985 he became Bishop of Johannesburg, and in 1986 he was elected Archbishop of Cape Town, the highest position in the Anglican Church in Southern Africa.
Much to the annoyance of the government, Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Underpinning all this was his spirituality, his focus on the daily Eucharist, Morning and Evening Prayer and regular intercessory prayer with time out for retreats and quiet days. The Nobel Prize, his senior position in the church and his opposition to violence made it very difficult for the National Party to deal with him like its other opponents. In some ways he was the regime’s trickiest adversary. Tutu also used his trademark fiery rhetoric to advocate for international sanctions against South Africa – an offence under the apartheid government’s Terrorism Act, which mandated a minimum five-year prison sentence. His courageous oratory earned him the hatred of white racists and the adulation of majority black South Africans. It projected him to a position of the most prominent anti apartheid leader on the international stage, a position cemented when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. When black political leaders were finally released from prison in 1990, Tutu left the political stage to Nelson Mandela and others, while reserving and exercising the right to criticise politicians of any stripe, including Mandela himself, for their failures to live up to his and their ideals. Always his ideals were deeply embedded in faith, justice and ubuntu. His criticism of government continued under the ANC.
He denounced those who were eager to get aboard the “gravy train”. He chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He believed that by facing the truth about our past, South Africa could move forward as a nation. And he called for all involved in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict to put aside their prejudices and fears and work towards peace and justice for the Palestinian people. Tutu lent his name to two leading medical research institutes in Cape Town: the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at UCT and the Desmond Tutu TB Centre at Stellenbosch University. He was an outspoken proponent of access to medicine. When Tutu was first diagnosed with cancer in 1994, he described how this had made him aware of his mortality. After being lauded worldwide for his part in helping to establish South Africa’s democracy, he said that he needed to be reminded that he too “was mortal”. In a statement made years later, on behalf of the World Council of Churches, Tutu’s explained his take on racism: “Racism is a sin. It is contrary to God’s will for love, peace, equality, justice, and compassion for all. It is an affront to human dignity and a gross violation of human rights.” “Human dignity is God’s gift to all humankind. It is the gift of God’s image and likeness in every human being. Racism desecrates God’s likeness in every person. Human rights are the protections we give to human dignity. We participate in the human rights struggle to restore wholeness that has been broken by racism. The struggle against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance is the struggle to sanctify and affirm life in all its fullness.”
As a mediator during the violence of South Africa’s difficult transition to democracy in the early 1990s, Tutu famously turned his focus to helping the country move towards healing and reconciliation, pointing out that just as apartheid devastated the lives and psyches of black South Africans, it also damaged souls of prejudiced white South Africans. Forgiveness, Tutu was always careful to explain, requires that the wrong is fearlessly addressed by both sides, and that the necessity for restitution is honoured. In 2007, President Mandela invited Tutu to be a founding member of “The Elders” along with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, retired UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and former Irish President Mary Robinson. The Elders vision was close to Tutu’s heart: challenging injustice, resolving conflict, and promoting ethical leadership. He was the first chair of the group. Annan called Tutu, “the foremost moral authority of our time”. Ostensibly retiring from public life on his 79th birthday, 7 October 2010, even in his sunset years Tutu did not silence his lifetime legacy of speaking truth to power on a range of issues: corruption, illegal arms deals, xenophobia, oppressed people in Palestine, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, respect for rule of law, HIV/Aids, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and LGBTQI+ rights. Tutu once famously remarked: “I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t”. His Holiness the Dalai Lama said “Wherever there is abuse of human rights or people’s freedom is being snatched away, be it Burma or Tibet,” of his dear friend, Tutu “he is always the first person to speak against it. He works tirelessly for truth, honesty, and equality. He doesn’t see any differences”.
Tutu has been awarded numerous awards, the Gandhi Peace Prize in India; the Templeton Prize; the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership; is a member of the Order for Meritorious Service, Gold (South Africa), a grand officer of the Légion d’Honneur (France), and an honorary member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (UK); and has received the highest civilian honour of the US from President Barack Obama, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Tutu has also been awarded more than 100 honorary doctorates by universities globally, including Harvard in the United States and Oxford in the United Kingdom. Most recently, Pope Francis named him, along with Martin Luther King Jr and Mahatma Gandhi, as one of those who inspired his third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, which (echoing one of Tutu’s key messages) calls for human fraternity and solidarity. Tutu was a healer at heart, an eternal optimist (a true “prisoner of hope”) and wry humourist. He will be remembered for his powerful words in defence of the most vulnerable among us, his infinite capacity for empathy, his quick wit, his infectious laugh, and his unfailing ability to turn toward the light even during unbearably dark times.