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Desmond Tutu
South African bishop and theologian
| Date of Birth | : | 10 Jul, 1931 |
| Date of Death | : | 26 Oct, 2021 |
| Place of Birth | : | Klerksdorp, South Africa |
| Profession | : | South African Bishop, Theologian |
| Nationality | : | South African |
Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, the first black African to hold both positions. Theologically, he sought to combine the ideas of black theology with African theology.
Tutu was born into a poor family of mixed Xhosa and Motswana heritage in Klerksdorp, South Africa. Entering adulthood, he trained as a teacher and married Nomalizo Leah Tutu, with whom he had several children. In 1960, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and moved to the UK in 1962 to study theology at King's College London. In 1966 he returned to South Africa, teaching at the Federal Theological Seminary and then the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1972, he became director of the Theological Education Fund for Africa, a position based in London but requiring regular visits to the African continent. Returning to South Africa in 1975, he served first as Dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg and then as Bishop of Lesotho; From 1978 to 1985 he was General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. He emerged as one of the leading opponents of South Africa's apartheid system of racial segregation and white minority rule. Although the National Party warned the government that anger at apartheid would lead to racial violence, as an activist he emphasized nonviolent protest and foreign economic pressure to bring about universal suffrage.
In 1985, Tutu became Bishop of Johannesburg and in 1986 Archbishop of Cape Town, the most senior position in the Anglican hierarchy in South Africa. In this position, she emphasized a consensus-building model of leadership and oversaw the induction of women priests. Also in 1986, he became president of the All Africa Conference of Churches, which led to further travel on the continent. After President F. W. D. Clarke released anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990 and the pair led negotiations to end apartheid and introduce multi-racial democracy, Tutu helped mediate between rival black groups. After the 1994 general election led to the formation of a coalition government led by Mandela, Tutu was later selected to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights abuses committed by both pro- and anti-apartheid groups in the past. After the fall of apartheid, Tutu campaigned for gay rights and spoke out on a variety of issues, including criticizing South African presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, opposing the Iraq War, and describing Israel's treatment of Palestinians as apartheid. In 2010, he retired from public life, but continues to speak on numerous topics and events.
With the popularity of the tutu in the 1970s, various socio-economic groups and political classes held a wide range of opinions about it, from criticism to admiration. He was popular among South Africa's black majority and internationally acclaimed for his work in anti-apartheid activism, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize and other international awards. He also compiled several books of his lectures and sermons.
First half of life
Childhood: 1931-1950
Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on 7 October 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa. His mother, Alain Dorothea Mavoertsek Mathler, was born into a Motswana family in Boksburg. His father, Zakaria Jelilo Tutu, was from the Amafengu branch of Xhosa and grew up in Gakuwa in the Eastern Cape. At home, the couple spoke Xhosa. After marrying in Boksburg, they moved to Klerksdorp in the late 1950s, living in the city's "native location", or black residential area, as Maquoitand was renamed. Zakaria worked as the principal of a Methodist primary school and the family lived in a mud brick school teacher's house in the yard of the Methodist mission.
Tutu was poor; describing his family, Tutu later said that "although we were not rich, we were not destitute" He had an older sister, Sylvia Funeka, who called him "Mpilo" (meaning 'life' ) called. He was the second son of his parents; Their firstborn son, Sipho, died in infancy. She was followed by another daughter, Gloria Lindiwe. Tutu was ill from birth; polio scarred his right arm, and at one point he was hospitalized with severe burns. Tutu had a close relationship with his father, although resented the latter's excessive drinking and violence towards his wife. The family was primarily Methodist and in June 1932 Tutu was baptized in the Methodist Church. They later changed first to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and then to the Anglican Church.
In 1936, the family moved to Shin, where Zakaria became the principal of a Methodist school. There, Tutu began his primary education, learned Afrikaans, and became a server at St. Francis Anglican Church. He developed a love of reading, particularly enjoying comic books and European fairy tales. In Shin his parents had a third son, Tamsanka, who also died in infancy. Around 1941, Tutu's mother moved to the Witwatersrand to work as a cook at the Ijenzeleni Blind Institute in Johannesburg. Tutu joins him in the city, living in Roodepoort West. In Johannesburg, he attended a Methodist primary school before transferring to the Swedish Boarding School (SBS) at St Agnes Mission. Several months later, he moved with his father to Ermelo in the Eastern Transvaal. After six months, the two returned to Roodepoort West, where Tutu resumed his studies at SBS. At the age of 12, he was confirmed at St. Mary's Church, Roodepoort.
Tutu entered the Johannesburg Bantu High School (Madibane High School) in 1945, where he excelled academically. Joining a school rugby team, he developed a lifelong love of the sport. Outside of school, he made money selling oranges and caddying for white golfers. To avoid the cost of the daily train commute to school, he briefly lived with family near Johannesburg, returning with his parents when they relocated to Muncieville. He then returned to Johannesburg, moving into an Anglican hostel near the Church of Christ the King in Sophiatown. He became a server at the church and came under the influence of its priest, Trevor Huddleston; later biographer Shirley du Boll suggested that Huddleston was the "greatest single influence" in Tutu's life. At the hospital, he was circumcised to transition to manhood. He returned to school in 1949 and took his national examinations in late 1950, achieving a second class pass.
College and Teaching Career: 1951-1955
Although Tutu was admitted to study medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, his parents could not afford the tuition fees. Instead, he turned to teaching, winning a government scholarship in 1951 for a course at the Pretoria Bantu Normal College, a teacher training institution. There he served as treasurer of the Student Representative Council, helped organize the Literacy and Dramatic Society and chaired the Cultural and Debating Societies. He met lawyer and future South African President Nelson Mandela during a debate event; They would not face each other again until 1990. At college, Tutu earned his Transvaal Bantu Teachers Diploma, having been advised to take the exam by activist Robert Sobukwe. He also took five correspondence courses offered by the University of South Africa (UNISA), graduating in the same class as future Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.
In 1954, Tutu began studying English at Madibane High School; The following year, he transferred to Krugersdorp High School, where he taught English and history. He began dating his sister Gloria's friend, Nomalyzo Lia Shenxan, who was studying to become an elementary school teacher. They were legally married at the Krugersdorp Native Commissioner's Court in June 1955, before a Roman Catholic wedding ceremony at the Church of Mary Queen of Apostles; Although an Anglican, Tutu agrees to the ceremony because of Leah's Roman Catholic faith. The newlyweds lived in Tutu's parents' house before renting their own six months later. Their first child, Trevor, was born in April 1956; A daughter, Thandeka, appeared 16 months later. The couple worshiped at St. Paul's Church, where Tutu volunteered as a Sunday school teacher, assistant choir teacher, church councilor, lay missionary and sub-deacon.
In college, Tutu studied the Bible, Anglican doctrine, church history, and Christian ethics, earning a theology degree, and winning the Archbishop's Annual Essay Prize. The college's principal, Godfrey Pawson, wrote that Tutu "has great knowledge and intelligence and is very hardworking. At the same time, he shows no arrogance, mixes well and is popular... He has obvious gifts of leadership." During his years at the college, There was an intensification of anti-apartheid activism as well as a crackdown on it, including the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. Tutu and the other trainees were not involved in the anti-apartheid campaign; he later noted that they were "a very apolitical group in some ways".
In December 1960, Edward Paget appointed Tutu as an Anglican priest at St Mary's Cathedral. Tutu was then appointed assistant curate of St Albans parish, Benoni, where he was reunited with his wife and children, and earned two-thirds of what his white counterparts were paid. In 1962, Tutu was transferred to St. Philip's Church in Thokoza, where he was put in charge of the congregation and developed a passion for pastoral ministry. Many in South Africa's white-dominated Anglican Order felt the need for more black Africans in positions of religious authority; To help with this, Alfred Stubbs proposed that Tutu be trained as a teacher of theology at King's College London (KCL). Funding was secured from the International Missionary Council's Theological Education Fund (TEF), and the government agreed to allow the Tuts to travel to Britain. They duly did so in September 1962.
During his postgraduate degree, Tutu worked as assistant curate at St Mary's Church in Bletchingley, Surrey.
At KCL, Tutu studied under theologians such as Dennis Ninham, Christopher Evans, Sidney Evans, Geoffrey Parinder, and Eric Maskall. In London, Tuts experience life free from apartheid in South Africa and pass laws; He was also impressed by the country's freedom of speech, particularly at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park. The family moved into the curate's flat behind St Alban the Martyr's Church in Golders Green, where Tutu assisted at Sunday services, the first time he had ministered in a white congregation. A daughter, Mpho Andrea Tutu, was born in Flatay in 1963. Tutu was successful academically and his tutors advised him to convert to an honors degree, which required him to study Hebrew. He received his degree from Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at a ceremony held at the Royal Albert Hall.
Tutu then received a TEF grant to study for a Masters degree, from October 1965 to September 1966, completing his dissertation on Islam in West Africa. During this period, the family moved to Bletchingley in Surrey, where Tutu worked as assistant curate at St Mary's Church. In the village, he encouraged cooperation between his Anglican parishioners and the local Roman Catholic and Methodist communities. Tutu's time in London helped him to overcome any bitterness towards whites and feelings of racial inferiority; He overcame the habit of automatically deferring to whites.
Career during apartheid
Teaching in South Africa and Lesotho: 1966–1972
In 1966, Tutu and his family moved to East Jerusalem, where he studied Arabic and Greek for two months at St George's College.They then returned to South Africa, settling in Alice, Eastern Cape, in 1967. The Federal Theological Seminary (Fedsem) had recently been established there as an amalgamation of training institutions from different Christian denominations. At Fedsem, Tutu was employed teaching doctrine, the Old Testament, and Greek; Leah became its library assistant.Tutu was the college's first black staff-member,and the campus allowed a level of racial-mixing which was rare in South Africa. The Tutus sent their children to a private boarding school in Swaziland, thereby keeping them from South Africa's Bantu Education syllabus.
Tutu joined a pan-Protestant group, the Church Unity Commission, served as a delegate at Anglican-Catholic conversations, and began publishing in academic journals. He also became the Anglican chaplain to the neighbouring University of Fort Hare; in an unusual move for the time, Tutu invited female as well as male students to become servers during the Eucharist.He joined student delegations to meetings of the Anglican Students' Federation and the University Christian Movement,and was broadly supportive of the Black Consciousness Movement that emerged from South Africa's 1960s student milieu, although did not share its view on avoiding collaboration with whites. In August 1968, he gave a sermon comparing South Africa's situation with that in the Eastern Bloc, likening anti-apartheid protests to the recent Prague Spring. In September, Fort Hare students held a sit-in protest over the university administration's policies; after they were surrounded by police with dogs, Tutu waded into the crowd to pray with the protesters.This was the first time that he had witnessed state power used to suppress dissent.
In January 1970, Tutu left the seminary for a teaching post at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS) in Roma, Lesotho. This brought him closer to his children and offered twice the salary he earned at Fedsem.[ He and his wife moved to the UBLS campus; most of his fellow staff members were white expatriates from the US or Britain. As well as his teaching position, he also became the college's Anglican chaplain and the warden of two student residences. In Lesotho, he joined the executive board of the Lesotho Ecumenical Association and served as an external examiner for both Fedsem and Rhodes University.He returned to South Africa on several occasions, including to visit his father shortly before the latter's death in February 1971.
Retirement from public life: 2010-2021
Tutu at COP17 "Our Faith: Act Now for Climate Justice Rally" in Durban, November 2011
In October 2010, Tutu announced his retirement from public life so he could spend more time "at home with my family – reading and writing and praying and thinking". In 2013, he announced that he would no longer vote for the ANC, citing that it had done a poor job of combating inequality, violence and corruption; After Mandela's death in December, Tutu initially said he was not invited to the funeral; After the government denied this, Tutu announced his presence. He criticized the memorials organized for Mandela, noting that they gave too much importance to the ANC and marginalized Africans.
Tutu maintained an interest in social affairs. In 2011, he called on the Anglican Church in South Africa to officiate same-sex marriages; In 2014, he came out in support of legal assisted dying, revealing that he wanted this option open to him.
Tutu continues to comment on international affairs. In November 2012, he published a letter of support for imprisoned US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning. In May 2014, Tutu visited Fort McMurray in the heart of Canada's oil sands, denouncing the "neglect and greed" of oil extraction. A month earlier he called for "an apartheid-style boycott of corporations that unjustly finance climate change to save the planet". In August 2017, Tutu was among ten Nobel Peace Prize laureates who urged Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of 14 participants in the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests. In September, Tutu asked Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end the military's persecution of the country's Muslim Rohingya minority. In December 2017, he was among the critics of US President Donald Trump's decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Tutu's last prominent public statement on world affairs was an op-ed published in the UK Guardian on 30 December 2020, in which he called on incoming US President Joe Biden to declare Israel possessed nuclear weapons and cut off all financial aid to the country (which he believed was Doing so would lead to the collapse of Israel's "apartheid" regime as it would remove alleged Israeli restrictions on Arabs and force a "peace treaty".
Theology
Tutu in Cologne in 2007
Tutu was attracted to Anglicanism because of what he saw as its tolerance and inclusiveness, its appeal to reason alongside scripture and tradition, and the freedom that its constituent churches had from any centralized authority. Tutu's approach to Anglicanism has been characterised as having been Anglo-Catholic in nature. He regarded the Anglican Communion as a family, replete with its internal squabbles.
Tutu rejected the idea that any particular variant of theology was universally applicable, instead maintaining that all understandings of God had to be "contextual" in relating to the socio-cultural conditions in which they existed. In the 1970s, Tutu became an advocate of both black theology and African theology, seeking ways to fuse the two schools of Christian theological thought. Unlike other theologians, like John Mbiti, who saw the traditions as largely incompatible, Tutu emphasised the similarities between the two. He believed that both theological approaches had arisen in contexts where black humanity had been defined in terms of white norms and values, in societies where "to be really human", the black man "had to see himself and to be seen as a chocolate coloured white man". He also argued that both black and African theology shared a repudiation of the supremacy of Western values. In doing so he spoke of an underlying unity of Africans and the African diaspora, stating that "All of us are bound to Mother Africa by invisible but tenacious bonds. She has nurtured the deepest things in us blacks."
He became, according to Du Boulay, "one of the most eloquent and persuasive communicators" of black theology. He expressed his views on theology largely through sermons and addresses rather than in extended academic treatises.Tutu expressed the view that Western theology sought answers to questions that Africans were not asking. For Tutu, two major questions were being posed by African Christianity; how to replace imported Christian expressions of faith with something authentically African, and how to liberate people from bondage. He believed that there were many comparisons to be made between contemporary African understandings of God and those featured in the Old Testament. He nevertheless criticised African theology for failing to sufficiently address contemporary societal problems, and suggested that to correct this it should learn from the black theology tradition.
When chairing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Tutu advocated an explicitly Christian model of reconciliation, as part of which he believed that South Africans had to face up to the damages that they had caused and accept the consequences of their actions. As part of this, he believed that the perpetrators and beneficiaries of apartheid must admit to their actions but that the system's victims should respond generously, stating that it was a "gospel imperative" to forgive. At the same time, he argued that those responsible had to display true repentance in the form of restitution.
Death
Tutu died of cancer at the age of 90 at the Oasis Frail Care Center in Cape Town on 26 December 2021. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described Tutu's death as "another chapter in the mourning of our nation's farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who gave us an independent South Africa".
Tutu's body lay in state for two days before the funeral. The cathedral rang its bells for 10 minutes at noon each day for several days before the funeral, and national landmarks, including Table Mountain, were lit up purple in Tutu's honor. A funeral service for Tutu was held on 1 January 2022 at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town. President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a eulogy and former Bishop of Natal, Michael Natal, delivered the homily. Attendance at the funeral was limited to 100 people due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. During the funeral, Tutu's body was placed in a "plain pine coffin, the cheapest available at his request to avoid any ostentatious display" After the funeral, Tutu's remains would be thrown into water; His ashes were interred in St. George's Cathedral.
Reception and legacy
Tutu at the German Evangelical Church Assembly, 2007
Gish noted that by the time of apartheid's fall, Tutu had attained "worldwide respect" for his "uncompromising stand for justice and reconciliation and his unmatched integrity". According to Allen, Tutu "made a powerful and unique contribution to publicizing the antiapartheid struggle abroad", particularly in the United States.In the latter country, he was able to rise to prominence as a South African anti-apartheid activist because—unlike Mandela and other members of the ANC—he had no links to the South African Communist Party and thus was more acceptable to Americans amid the Cold War anti-communist sentiment of the period. In the United States, he was often compared to Martin Luther King Jr., with the African-American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson referring to him as "the Martin Luther King of South Africa". After the end of apartheid, Tutu became "perhaps the world's most prominent religious leader advocating gay and lesbian rights", according to Allen. Ultimately, Allen thought that perhaps Tutu's "greatest legacy" was the fact that he gave "to the world as it entered the twenty-first century an African model for expressing the nature of human community".
During Tutu's rise to notability during the 1970s and 1980s, responses to him were "sharply polarized". Noting that he was "simultaneously loved and hated, honoured and vilified", Du Boulay attributed his divisive reception to the fact that "strong people evoke strong emotions". Tutu gained much adulation from black journalists, inspired imprisoned anti-apartheid activists, and led to many black parents' naming their children after him. For many black South Africans, he was a respected religious leader and a symbol of black achievement. By 1984 he was—according to Gish—"the personification of the South African freedom struggle". In 1988, Du Boulay described him as "a spokesman for his people, a voice for the voiceless".
The response he received from South Africa's white minority was more mixed. Most of those who criticised him were conservative whites who did not want a shift away from apartheid and white-minority rule. Many of these whites were angered that he was calling for economic sanctions against South Africa and that he was warning that racial violence was impending. Said whites often accused him of being a tool of the communists. This hostility was exacerbated by the government's campaign to discredit Tutu and distort his image, which included repeatedly misquoting him to present his statements out of context. According to Du Boulay, the SABC and much of the white press went to "extraordinary attempts to discredit him", something that "made it hard to know the man himself". Allen noted that in 1984, Tutu was "the black leader white South Africans most loved to hate" and that this antipathy extended beyond supporters of the far-right government to liberals too. The fact that he was "an object of hate" for many was something that deeply pained him.
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