South Africa's Archbishop Tutu dies at 90

Leader of the rainbow nation mourned - 17th January 2022

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whose steadfast efforts to end apartheid in South Africa earned him worldwide respect, passed away on 26th December 2021. The 90 year old cleric's death was met with sadness around the globe.

Tributes poured in for a man whose ministering and campaigning helped change the face of South Africa. The Nelson Mandela Foundation praised him as "an extraordinary human being. A thinker. A leader. A shepherd."

Born in 1931 in a small gold-mining town in South Africa, Tutu trained as a teacher like his father, although Tutu and his wife Leah both resigned from the profession in 1953 in opposition to the white government's introduction of the Bantu Education Act, which segregated people's education by skin colour.

Tutu answered his calling, being ordained as a priest in the Anglican church. As a Christian leader, he preached against the injustices of racial discrimination and devoted his life to ending the system of apartheid, meaning 'separateness' or 'apartness', introduced in post-war South Africa by a white-minority government which denied Black people equality in all areas of life.

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 provided Tutu with international recognition and a major snub to South Africa's white rulers. Similar followed in 1986, when he was ordained the first Black Archbishop of Cape Town – primate of Southern Africa's Anglican communion.

In March 1988, Archbishop Tutu declared that "We refuse to be treated as the doormat for the government to wipe its jackboots on." He risked jail calling for a boycott of municipal elections, was caught in tear gas when police attacked a congregation in a township church and was arrested during a banned rally.

Following Nelson Mandela's election as president, Archbishop Tutu persevered with making South Africa a "rainbow nation" bringing people from all backgrounds together in peace. Even in his funeral plans, his values shone out, having selected the cheapest pine coffin to hold his body as it lay in state for two days for mourners to pay their respects.

Tutu's peaceful confidence, wisdom and lifelong demands to treat people justly and fairly leave a lasting impression.