Welby ‘a mouse’ hails Tutu the elephant
Archbishop pays homage to anti-apartheid leader as a giant figure to rank alongside Nelson Mandela
THE Archbishop of Canterbury said his homage at Desmond Tutu’s state funeral in Cape Town yesterday was “like a mouse giving a tribute to an elephant”.
South Africa has produced “two giant figures that tower over the world, President Mandela and Archbishop Tutu”, said Justin Welby in a video message shown at the requiem Mass at St George’s Cathedral.
“In all the messages I have received from around the world, the most striking common thing was when people said, when we were in the dark he brought us into the light,” the head of the worldwide Anglican Church said.
The funeral service for Tutu, who died last Sunday aged 90, aimed to commemorate the Nobel laureate in the same fashion as he lived his life: with humility.
A plain pine coffin held the body of the archbishop, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his nonviolent opposition to apartheid. He had requested the cheapest available casket to avoid ostentation.
In keeping with Tutu’s commitment to the environment, his body will be “aquamated”, a process that uses water to prepare remains for final disposition.
He will be buried in the cathedral, not far from the pulpit where he once railed against injustices of apartheid. Planning for the funeral began six years ago and the two-hour service featured African choirs, prayers and incense.
Archbishop Welby said while many Nobel laureates faded from public view, “Archbishop Tutu’s light grew brighter.”
The main eulogy was delivered by Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, who called Tutu the “spiritual father of our new nation; our moral compass and national conscience”.
“We are still finding our feet on our long road to nationhood,” said Mr Ramaphosa. “He has left us at another difficult time in the life of our nation. Poverty and inequality, racism, homophobia, gender-based violence, crime and corruption have left many people disenchanted. There were re times when he felt let down. Yet he never ever lost hope.”
Mr Ramaphosa handed ed a national flag to Tutu’s widow, Leah, h, as she sat in a wheelchair.
Jacob Zuma, the former r head of state, who is on medical parole, e, was not in attendance.
Zuma, who was forced to resign from office in 2017 and later er jailed for failing to attend an inquiry nquiry into corruption, earned d the disdain of Tutu after refusing sing a visa to the Dalai Lama.
Tutu repeatedly criticised sed Zuma’s party, the African can National Congress, for cororruption under the former mer president’s leadership. It was not clear whether Tutu utu voted for the ANC in elecections just two months hs before his death. The party rty won South Africa’s first rst democratic elections in
1994 under the leadership p of Tutu’s close friend the late Nelson Mandela.
Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s second president, did attend the service, despite also having attracted the ire of Tutu for questioning whether the HIV virus caused Aids and refusing anti-retroviral treatment to public healthcare patients.
Social distancing meant only 100 people were allowed in the cathedral, which can hold 1,200 worshippers.
Mourners and members of the public sheltered under umbrellas ahead of the service but as the mass began the rain lifted and the cathedral was bathed in bright summer sunshine.
Michael Nuttall, the retired Bishop of Natal and a long-time friend and colleague, delivered the sermon and recalled the nickname, “The Arch”, which many used to refer to Tutu. Our partnership struck a chord perhaps in the hearts and minds of many people: a dynamic black leader and his white deputy in the dying years of apartheid; and hey presto, the heavens did not collapse.
“We were a foretaste, if you like, of what could be in our wayward, divided nation. This was our ‘Arch’ at his very best.”
Tutu’s eldest daughter, Naomi, said the family had been overwhelmed by tributes to her father.
“Daddy would say the love the world has shown has warmed the cockles of our hearts, and then he would say, ‘I don’t know what a cockle is, but whatever it is has been warmed’. And since he was an English teacher and doesn’t know what a cockle is… I definitely don’t know what a cockle is, but our cockles are warm.”