Archbishop Desmond Tutu: The resolute and tireless campaigner against injustice

The first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town helped bring down apartheid in South Africa.

Desmond Tutu, a resolute, tireless and confirmed fighter against apartheid, shocked the South African government of the day by his ordination as the first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986.

He was a courageous political campaigner, some would say firebrand, against the blatant injustices meted out to the non-white population of South Africa.

But his homely manner, his obvious personal kindness and his wit endeared him more than ever to the proponents worldwide of the anti-apartheid cause.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu after he received an honorary degree from the University of Leicester in 2011 (University of Leicester/PA)

He once wrote a letter to then prime minister John Vorster, warning the situation in South Africa was “a powder barrel that can explode at any time”.

The letter was never answered.

It is said that he did as much as anyone, including even Nelson Mandela, to bring apartheid in South Africa to its knees, leading to the formation of a democratically elected government under Mandela himself.

Tutu was generally credited with coining the term Rainbow Nation as a metaphor to describe the post-apartheid South Africa after 1994 under African National Congress rule.

Desmond Tutu peers through a hole he knocked in a wall at St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy, central London, in 2006 (Rebecca Reid/PA)

But this in no way weakened his sense of public spiritedness or diminished his commitment to the Christian cause, of which he was such a beacon.

He became the honorary archbishop emeritus of the coastal city he had served.

He was born in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, on October 7 1931, and moved to Johannesburg at the age of 12.

Prince Harry holding hands with the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in 2015 (Chris Radburn/PA)

He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1960, becoming chaplain at the University of Fort Hare, a hotbed of dissent and one of the few quality universities for black African students.

He left that post in 1962 and travelled to King’s College London, where he received degrees in theology.

Tutu returned to South Africa in 1967 and, until 1972, used his lectures to highlight the plight of the African population.

SA gala Tutu & Mandela bust — Archbishop Desmond Tutu stands next to a bust of former South African president Nelson Mandela in London in 2001 (William Conran/PA )

His sterling work in the cause of the anti-apartheid movement led to his receiving numerous doctorates and academic awards from all over the world.

However, although he was firm in denouncing South Africa’s white-rule government, he was also harsh in his criticism of the violent tactics of some anti-apartheid groups, such as the African National Congress.

He denounced terrorism and Communism and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1984 for his “role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa”.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Queen Elizabeth nearby St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town — Archbishop Desmond Tutu with the Queen in Cape Town in 1995 (Martin Keene/PA)

After apartheid fell, he headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for which he was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999.

That was the year during which he gave the annual Wilberforce Lecture in Hull, commemorating the life and achievements of the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce, who originated in the city. He was presented with the freedom of Hull.

He returned to the UK yet again in 2004 as visiting professor in Post-Conflict Societies at King’s College London.

Tutu, unlike many African churchmen, opposed Christian discrimination against homosexuals.

The archbishop said: “I am deeply saddened at a time when we’ve got such huge problems that we should invest so much time and energy in this issue.

He also criticised human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, describing then president Robert Mugabe as “a caricature of an African dictator”.

He equally criticised the South African government’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe.

Tutu has made controversial statements involving Israel, once saying Zionism had “very many parallels with racism”.

He also likened Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the treatment of black South Africans under apartheid.

He eventually retired from public life in 2011 but he continued to speak out.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Bob Geldof at Old Billingsgate, London. — Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Bob Geldof at Old Billingsgate, London, in 2010 (Zak Hussein/PA)

Writing in the Observer, he accused them of lying about weapons of mass destruction and that the invasion has left the world more destabilised and more divided “than any other conflict in history”.

In 2015, he launched a change.org petition urging then US president Barack Obama and UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to create a world solely reliant on renewable energy by 2050.

The archbishop stepped down as Oxfam ambassador in 2018, following the charity’s sex scandal.

Meghan, Archie, Archbishop Desmond Tutu — The Duchess of Sussex and her son Archie meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town in 2019 (Toby Melville/PA)

Tutu later opposed then US president Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel.

In 2019, he met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their son Archie during their tour to southern Africa.

Archbishop Tutu married Leah Nomali in 1955 and the couple had four children.