Farewelling a hero

As mourners descended on St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town to pay tribute to anti-apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he lay in state

in a simple wooden coffin. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights pioneer had requested the “cheapest available”, a statement from his foundation said – typical of a man who had put helping others ahead of himself. In the words of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, when confirming Tutu’s death on December 26: “A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice

and violence under apartheid, and downtrodden people around the world.”