Shirley du Boulay on Tutu's personality[389], Shirley Du Boulay noted that Tutu was "a man of many layers" and "contradictory tensions". [323] He had very little control over the committee responsible for granting amnesty, instead chairing the committee which heard accounts of human rights abuses perpetrated by both anti-apartheid and apartheid figures. After the 1994 general election resulted in a coalition government headed by Mandela, the latter selected Tutu to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses committed by both pro and anti-apartheid groups.
Desmond Tutu, South Africa's Nobel Peace winner, dies at 90 [280] Tutu attended Mandela's inauguration ceremony; he had planned its religious component, insisting that Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu leaders all take part. Following apartheid's fall, Tutu campaigned for gay rights and spoke out on a wide range of subjects, among them his criticism of South African presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, his opposition to the Iraq War, and describing Israel's treatment of Palestinians as apartheid. From 1972 to 1975 he served as an associate director for the World Council of Churches. [191] The Nobel Prize selection committee had wanted to recognise a South African and thought Tutu would be a less controversial choice than Mandela or Mangosuthu Buthelezi. [483] According to Gish, Tutu "faced the perpetual dilemma of all moderates he was often viewed suspiciously by the two hostile sides he sought to bring together". At the Lambeth Conference of 1988, he backed a resolution condemning the use of violence by all sides; Tutu believed that Irish republicans had not exhausted peaceful means of bringing about change and should not resort to armed struggle. To cite this section MLA style: Desmond Tutu - Acceptance Speech. [380][381] South African president Cyril Ramaphosa described Tutu's death as "another chapter of bereavement in our nation's farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa. Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican cleric, outspoken opponent of apartheid and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. [151], As head of the SACC, Tutu's time was dominated by fundraising for the organisation's projects. [312] Mandela hit back, calling Tutu a "populist" and stating that he should have raised these issues privately rather than publicly. [59], In December 1960, Edward Paget ordained Tutu as an Anglican priest at St Mary's Cathedral. [244] He telephoned representatives of the American, British, and German governments urging them to pressure Botha on the issue,[245] and personally met with Botha at the latter's Tuynhuys home to discuss the issue. Wouldn't you be scared if you were outnumbered five to one? [460], 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 1981 a government commission launched to investigate the issue, headed by the judge C. F. [301] This took place between 1998 and 2000, and during the period he wrote a book about the TRC, No Future Without Forgiveness. The price of speaking out. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Christian leader who helped to end the racist system of apartheid in South Africa, has died at the age of 90. Bothas administration. The Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu has called on Aung San Suu Kyi to end military-led operations against Myanmar's Rohingya minority, which have driven 270,000 refugees from the country in the. [122] He met with Black Consciousness and Soweto leaders,[123] and shared a platform with anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Mandela in opposing the government's Terrorism Act, 1967. Though he wanted a medical career, Tutu was unable to afford training and instead became a schoolteacher in 1955. "[430], Tutu never became anti-white, in part due to his many positive experiences with white people. 28 Dec 2021. He headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was intended to help heal the country by investigating human rights violations that had occurred during the apartheid era. If we don't act against HIV-AIDS, it may succeed, for it is already decimating our population. [390], The response he received from South Africa's white minority was more mixed. Despite bloody violations committed against the black population, as in the Sharpeville massacre of 1961 and the Soweto rising in 1976, Tutu adhered to his nonviolent line. [94] 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. [449] He tried to avoid alignment with any particular political party; in the 1980s, for instance, he signed a plea urging anti-apartheid activists in the United States to support both the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). The mid-1980s saw growing clashes between black youths and the security services; Tutu was invited to speak at many of the funerals of those youths killed. [452] This hostility was exacerbated by the government's campaign to discredit Tutu and distort his image,[479] which included repeatedly misquoting him to present his statements out of context. [105] In Zaire, he for instance lamented the widespread corruption and poverty and complained that Mobutu Sese Seko's "military regime is extremely galling to a black from South Africa. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. With the passing of Desmond Tutu, who died in Cape Town at age 90 on December 26, even the last of the three Nobel Peace prize winners linked to the end of apartheid in the 1990s has gone.In 2013, the death of Nelson Mandela hit the global headlines for weeks and his life and times were celebrated with a stadium event to which an unprecedented number of world leaders participated. ", This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 17:36. Picture 1 of 1.
Desmond Tutu - Facts - NobelPrize.org Desmond tutu Nobel Peace Prize winner. [340] Israeli officials expressed concern that the report would be biased against Israel.
"[113] Seeking to fuse the African-American derived black theology with African theology, Tutu's approach contrasted with that of those African theologians, like John Mbiti, who regarded black theology as a foreign import irrelevant to Africa.
'I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't': The 4 Mar 2023. As Tutu rose to prominence in the 1970s, different socio-economic groups and political classes held a wide range of views about him, from critical to admiring. The outspoken Tutu was considered the nation's conscience by both Black and white, an enduring testament to his faith and spirit of reconciliation in a divided nation. [98] He and his wife moved to the UBLS campus; most of his fellow staff members were white expatriates from the US or Britain. The years 1962-66 were devoted to further theological study in England leading up to a Master of Theology. In 1978 Tutu accepted an appointment as the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and became a leading spokesperson for the rights of Black South Africans. [264] Many clergy were angry that the latter was being imposed without consultation, although Tutu defended it, stating that priests affiliating with political parties would prove divisive, particularly amid growing inter-party violence. [152] Under Tutu's tenure, it was revealed that one of the SACC's divisional directors had been stealing funds. [292] Tutu called for a Palestinian state,[293] and emphasised that his criticisms were of the Israeli government rather than of Jews. Tutu was vocal in his defense of human rights and used his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. At the same time, Tutu recognised Israel's right to exist. [353], Before the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005, Tutu called on world leaders to promote free trade with poorer countries and to end expensive taxes on anti-AIDS drugs. "[294] Tutu was named to head a United Nations fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip to investigate the November 2006 incident in which soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces killed 19 civilians. [149] He had a tendency to be highly trusting, something which some of those close to him sometimes believed was unwise in various situations. [51] In August 1960, his wife gave birth to another daughter, Naomi. He made a public statement dedicating his Prize to the "little people" in South Africa and shared his prize money with his family, South African Church Council staff . Mpho Tutu-van Furth - whose father, Desmond Tutu, won the Nobel peace prize in 1984 for the struggle against apartheid in South Africa - said the move had been forced on her following. "[112] He stated that his paper was not an attempt to demonstrate the academic respectability of black theology but rather to make "a straightforward, perhaps shrill, statement about an existent. [141] Tutu took charge of the SACC in March 1978. "You have to understand that the Bible is really a library of books and it has different categories of material", he said. The Nobel Committee cited his "role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa". South. [4] Having married in Boksburg,[5] they moved to Klerksdorp in the late 1950s, living in the city's "native location", or black residential area, since renamed Makoetend. [480] 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". NobelPrize.org. [130] This decision upset some of his congregation, who felt that he had used their parish as a stepping stone to advance his career. [301], In January 1997, Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer and travelled abroad for treatment. In 1987 Tutu was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award,[490] named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Desmond-Tutu, The Nobel Prize - Biography of Desmond Tutu, South African History Online - Biography of Mpilo Tutu, Academy of Achievement - Biography of Desmond Tutu, Desmond Tutu - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Desmond Tutu - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa. [478] Said whites often accused him of being a tool of the communists. To cite this section MLA style: Desmond Tutu - Interview. South Africa eventually held its.