South Africa has lost its best-beloved citizen – Desmond Mapilo Tutu is no longer among us. The first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town aged 90 – virtual head of the Church in his home country – passed away on Boxing Day 2021. The man who once said he wished he could shut up, only he couldn’t, will no longer be heard: among the many issues on which he had sounded other than apartheid and human rights were also HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, poverty, racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia and transphobia as the Daily Maveric pointed out.
His was a powerful, forthright respected voice, that irked both the Nationalist government and its successor, the African National Congress (ANC) and its friends.
Thousands of words of tribute will be written about the man, who stared the big men down. Called a moral compass, he received the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize to the fury of the National Party government, one of the honours with which he was deservedly showered. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa was the first to pay tribute to the “patriot without equal.”
He was indeed a giant in the struggle against apartheid, a “champion of universal human rights”, as Ramaphosa had it. His friend Nelson Mandela had described the “Arch” as “sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid, seldom without humour” and also as “the voice of the voiceless.”
Born to a school principal and a domestic teacher, Desmond Tutu became an Anglican priest with a London University theology MA. In the 70s he towered above civil rights fighters in South Africa, charismatic, emotional, courageous to become a global household name. Leading public protests, always speaking out, he was “too famous” to be assassinated, as one writer said, though his apartheid detractors denounced him as a traitor and troublemaking agitator.
Sharing Mandela’s hope of a multiracial society, Tutu did not back the armed struggle of the African National Congress. Described as a thorn in the governing party after its success in the first 1994 democratic elections, he attacked those who had joined the so-called gravy train. He was “hurt” when denied to be present at Mandela’s 2013 funeral.
As chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to probe apartheid’s human rights abuses, he was challenged and distressed by the daily terrible testimony. Harsh criticism by the right, the ANC and some white liberals saddened him.
Despite being diagnosed with cancer, the “Arch” continued to participate in public affairs. As the Daily Maverick said, his 2015 petition to world leaders on renewable energies had the backing worldwide of 300 000. The man who said he “loved to be loved”, will be missed but never forgotten. Hamba gashla – Archbishop, humanist, compassionate leader.