Desmond tutu, South African Archbishop Nobel Peace Prize and symbol of South Africa’s struggle against the government of the white minority, has died At age 90, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced this Sunday. “The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of mourning in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have left us a liberated South Africa“, affirmed the leader.
Tutu was considered the conscience of the nation. He worked all his life to bring about the reconciliation of a divided country, fighting to the end for a more just nation, both when the white minority ruled and when the black political elite has ruled. A dream, that of the “rainbow nation” that has not been fulfilled, as he himself has lamented on several occasions in recent years.
For his nonviolent fight against apartheid, the racial segregation system that deprived the country’s black majority of their rights, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. But on the international level he has also been a relentless activist, dealing with issues such as gay rights, climate change, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories or assisted death.
Against everyone
While most of the leaders of the African National Congress were imprisoned, such as Nelson Mandela, Tutu used his high profile in the Anglican Church to become the face of the anti-apartheid movement. “We are tired of coming to funerals, of making speeches week after week. It is time to stop the waste of human lives,” he protested during one of his famous speeches at the graveside of blacks who died during the fight against white tyranny.
When Mandela, a great friend of Tutu whom he considered “The voice of the voiceless”, arrived at the Government, the archbishop was put at the head of the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation. From that position He also fought against the new democracy in matters that he considered were not acting correctly. He has come to publicly criticize Mandela, President Jacob Zuma for corruption and the government itself for supporting the President of Zimbabwe.
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