South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has died. He was 90 years old.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate who helped end apartheid in South Africa died in the early hours of today Sunday, December 26.
A contemporary of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, he was was one of the driving forces behind the movement to end the policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991.
He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984 for his role in the struggle to abolish the apartheid system.
Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and in recent years he was hospitalized on several occasions to treat infections associated with his treatment.
“Ultimately, at the age of 90, he died peacefully at the Oasis Frail Care Centre in Cape Town this morning,” Dr Ramphela Mamphele, acting chairperson of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu IP Trust and coordinator of the Office of the Archbishop, said in a statement on behalf of the Tutu family.
Born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa, Desmond Tutu became the first Black Anglican Archbishop of both Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Known as the voice of the voiceless Black South Africans he was an outspoken critic of apartheid. Tutu also supported the economic boycott of South Africa, while constantly encouraging reconciliation between various factions associated with apartheid.
When Nelson Mandela was elected as the nation’s first Black president—he appointed Tutu chairperson of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Desmond Tutu was bestowed numerous awards, including the Pacem in Terris Award, the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award, the Lincoln Leadership Prize and the Gandhi Peace Prize.
Desmond Tutu traveled extensively, championing human rights and the equality of all people, both within South Africa and internationally.
On why we should forgive, Desmond Tutu said: “Until we can forgive the person who harmed us, that person will hold the keys to our happiness; that person will be our jailor. When we forgive, we take back control of our own fate and our feelings. We forgive for ourselves.”
