Desmond Tutu
Sign in to saveSouth African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner (1931–2021)
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Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican archbishop and Nobel Prize winner who became a prominent moral leader in the struggle against apartheid. His work as a religious figure and advocate for human rights and racial justice made him one of the most influential voices for peace and equality in the late 20th century.
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Person · Open Library
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- 12
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- The Bang-Bang Club
- Dignity
- God Is Not a Christian
- The Rainbow People of God - A Spiritual Journey from Apartheid to Freedom
- The Book of Forgiving
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Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. He was the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Town and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa). Tutu's admirers see him as a man who since the demise of apartheid has been active in the defence of human rights and uses his high profile to camp
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Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 1931 – 26 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first Black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from Black theology with African theology.
Tutu was born of mixed Xhosa and Motswana heritage to a poor family in Klerksdorp, South Africa. Entering adulthood, he trained as a teacher and married Nomalizo Leah Tutu, with whom he had several children. In 1960, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and in 1962 moved to the United Kingdom to study theology at King's College London. In 1966 he returned to southern Africa, teaching at the Federal Theological Seminary and then the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1972, he became the Theological Education Fund's director for Africa, a position based in London but necessitating regular tours of the African continent. Back in southern Africa in 1975, he served first as dean of St Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg and then as Bishop of Lesotho; from 1978 to 1985 he was general-secretary of the South African Council of Churches. He emerged as one of the most prominent opponents of South Africa's apartheid system of racial segregation and white minority rule. Although warning the National Party government that anger at apartheid would lead to racial violence, as an activist he stressed non-violent protest and foreign economic pressure to bring about universal suffrage.
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1931 births2021 deaths20th-century Anglican archbishops20th-century Anglican Church of Southern Africa bishops20th-century South African male writers21st-century South African male writersAcademic staff of the National University of LesothoAfrican democratic socialistsAlumni of King's College LondonAlumni of the University of LondonAnglican anti-apartheid activists