Tutu: An intense force against apartheid

There are so many ways to describe the former Archbishop of Cape Town and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu, who died of cancer on Sunday. And few of them do him the justice he deserves. A gifted orator, irreverent and engaging, he and the great Nelson Mandela were the architects of modern South Africa. He was a powerful and intense force against apartheid though he did not hesitate to push for a reconciliation between the blacks and whites of his country despite bitter divisions. The idea of a free country for its black majority, which Tutu felt strongly about in his early years — he threw in his lot with the black liberation movement in the seventies — came to fruition in the nineties.

He was the chairman of the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission and although he was able to see how terrifying and vicious apartheid was, he still felt that it was important to confront this peacefully rather than be vengeful. He never held back from his criticism of both the leaders of apartheid as well as the African National Congress. His warnings about the need to stay the course of modern South Africa set out by his incomparable compatriot Mandela, are messages that hold true even today. If there is anyone who could be said to have discerned the need to be above racial issues as much as Mandela, it was Tutu. Did he go over the top with his irreverence at times? Perhaps, he did. But, his life was much beyond just the concerns of his country. Tutu advocated the right to assisted dying, in 2020 he threw his weight behind ending the criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people. When the history of modern South Africa is written, Desmond Tutu will be up there with Nelson Mandela.