Desmond Tutu: an obituary

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu: in memoriam

Desmond Tutu was a courageous man.?He was a man of deep faith and of the firm belief that all people were children of God, regardless of your politics or religion, status or heritage, gender or sexuality! He spent his life speaking truth to power at great personal risk.??He did not think to hide in the shadows.??He was there at the forefront of the struggle.

His political and spiritual awakening began when a tall white priest doffed his hat to Desmond Tutu’s mother.??That priest was Father Trevor Huddleston, and this was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two men, that was tempered in the struggle against apartheid.??According to Tutu’s own account, that first meeting was influential when he decided on the road to priesthood.??

And what a road it was.?It was Desmond Tutu who preached at the funeral of Steve Biko in 1977.??It was Desmond Tutu who led marches in South Africa calling for an end to apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela when he was still in prison.?It was Desmond Tutu, along with his friend Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, who galvanized the opposition against apartheid worldwide for decades. In 1984 his work was recognized by the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, but tougher years lay ahead.?In 1988, it was Desmond Tutu who received the Nelson Mandela Freedom Marchers in London’s Hyde Park at the end of their march from Glasgow, now demanding the release of Nelson Mandela.??It was Desmond Tutu’s Bishopscourt home to which Nelson Mandela went when he walked out of prison in 1990.

On 27th April 1994, Desmond Tutu, like millions of South Africans, went to vote for the first time in his life.??When he saw the new South African flag, he said it symbolised the Rainbow Nation.??He then set out to help build that nation.??His chairing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a task he could not refuse, stepping into uncharted territory with a philosophy of full disclosure in exchange for amnesty. Despite its inevitable compromises, in the quest for the lives and names of the murdered and disappeared to be known to the world, he wept with witnesses, parents, spouses, children and survivors. In the face of tyranny, he found a way to continue to epitomise love.

Desmond Tutu led a remarkable, extraordinary life, not without pain or price for being the ‘rabble rouser for peace’. ?His family had no choice but to share him and generations were lucky to have been able to walk forward to freedom with him.??Hamba Kahle, Desmond Tutu.??Rest now, in peace.

Issued by ACTSA