Desmond Tutu

Desmond Mpilo Tutu (Xhosa: Desmond Mpilo Tutu, October 7, 1931 - December 26, 2021), formerly translated as Tu Demin, is the emeritus archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Cape Town and the first African-American archbishop of the Anglican Church in South Africa. He is known as the pioneer of human rights theology. Tu Tu was also the winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize. He began working to dismantle apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s, and began leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995, and is famous for promoting transformational justice in South Africa. Tutu served as Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986, and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1995. Tutu was the first black person to hold both positions. He aimed at the integration of black theology and African theology, and considered himself a socialist politically. Born in Klerksdorp to a poor family of mixed Xhosa and Tswana descent. Tutu moved around South Africa when he was young. Entering adulthood, he trained as a teacher and married Nomalizo Leah Tutu, with whom he had several children. In 1960 he was ordained an Anglican priest and moved to England in 1962 to study theology at King's College London. In 1966, he returned to South Africa and taught at the Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa, then at the University of Botswana, the University of Lesotho and the United University of Swaziland. In 1972 he became Director of Africa at the Theological Education Fund, a position based in London but which required regular travel to Africa. Returning to South Africa in 1975, he served first as dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg and then as bishop of Lesotho, where he played an active role in opposing apartheid and the apartheid system of white minority rule in South Africa. From 1978 to 1985, he served as Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches and gradually became one of South Africa's leading anti-apartheid activists. Although he warned the Nationalist government that apartheid would lead to racial violence, as an activist he emphasized nonviolent resistance and the introduction of foreign economic pressure to change apartheid policies. In 1985 he became Bishop of Johannesburg and in 1986 Archbishop of Cape Town, the most senior position in the Anglican hierarchy in South Africa. In this role, he emphasized a consensus-building leadership model