Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a towering figure who helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, has passed away in Cape Town. He was 90.
“The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement early Sunday.
“Desmond Tutu was a patriot without equal; a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.”
The passionate advocate for freedom headed the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990s, a grueling inquiry that investigated crimes during the apartheid era. It was widely seen as a crucial healing step during South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy. The TRC became a model for similar commissions in other parts of the continent.
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Tutu, who helped bring down apartheid in South Africa, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
Tutu was also the first Black bishop of Johannesburg and later became the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. He was known for working tirelessly for racial justice and LBGTQ rights.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called Tutu “a towering global figure for peace & justice.”
Former President Obama described him as “a moral compass” and “universal spirit.”
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Tutu, an Anglican clergyman, used the pulpit to preach and galvanize public opinion against the injustice faced by South Africa’s Black majority.
Tutu, the first Black bishop of Johannesburg and later the first Black archbishop of Cape Town, was a vocal activist for racial justice and LGBTQ rights not just in South Africa but around the world.
In 1990, after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela spent his first night of freedom at Tutu’s residence in Cape Town.
After the fall of the apartheid regime, with Mandela leading the country as its first Black president, Tutu headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which laid bare the terrible truths of white rule.
“His contributions to struggles against injustice, locally and globally, are matched only by the depth of his thinking about the making of liberatory futures for human societies,” the Nelson Mandela Foundation said in a statement.
Tutu’s legacy surpasses borders and “will echo throughout the ages,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday.
“We were blessed to spend time with him on
