Desmond Tutu was considered the moral voice of South Africa. Now the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has died at the age of 90. The President expressed his grief.
The South African anti-apartheid fighter and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond tutu is dead. The retired archbishop died at the age of 90, as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday. He expressed “on behalf of all South Africans his deep sorrow over the death” of tutus, said the head of state.
Even in old age, Tutu was still considered the moral voice of his country. Most recently, however, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, known as cheerful and energetic, with the winning smile rarely appeared in public. In May he showed himself to his compatriots when he and his wife Leah received the Covid vaccination. Sitting in a wheelchair, he waved at the cameras – an image that was difficult to reconcile with the lively man who once captivated the world with his harsh criticism of South Africa’s apartheid regime. He was last seen in public at the celebrations for his 90th birthday.
First black bishop of Johannesburg
Tutu was born on October 7, 1931 in Klerksdorp near Johannesburg as the son of the head of the Methodist school there. He was given the nickname Mpilo (health) because he became seriously ill several times as a small child. His parents’ money was not enough for his wish to become a doctor.
Tutu therefore trained as a teacher, but gave up this profession after three years in 1957 in protest against the discriminatory educational policy of the apartheid regime. He then turned to theology and was ordained an Anglican priest at the age of 30. He studied further at King’s College London and in 1975 took over the office of Anglican Superintendent of Johannesburg. He openly criticized the apartheid state, but was against a violent overthrow of the rulers.
Tutu coined the term “rainbow nation”
Because he demanded international sanctions against Pretoria, his passport was revoked in 1980 and 1981, but that only seemed to promote the reputation of the militant man of God. In 1984 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for non-violent action against the apartheid regime. Two years later, Tutu became head of the two million Anglicans in South Africa. He held this office until autumn 1996. As chairman of the Truth Commission, he stood for the principle of “forgive but not forget”. He was deeply convinced that a settlement in the style of the Nuremberg Trials could only harm his country. Forgiveness has less to do with Christian principles than with realpolitik, he once said.
Together with South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela, Tutu was one of the most important architects of the Rainbow Nation. Both were united not only by the Nobel Peace Prize, but also by charisma and the ability to provide moral and ethical orientation. Tutu, who castigated racial segregation in the apartheid state as immoral and incompatible with God’s Word, became, like Mandela, one of the advocates for reconciliation between black and white in democratic South Africa. Millions of TV viewers around the world saw him burst into tears as the head of the reconciliation commission, before which the former apartheid henchmen confessed to their deeds after the fall of the Cape against the prospect of amnesty.