« Qhat will happen to us now that our father is dead? This phrase resonated around the world when Desmond Tutu paid tribute to Nelson Mandela, who had just passed away. It was December 6, 2013. This Saturday 1is January 2022, at the time of the Requiem Mass for Desmond Tutu, in the Anglican Cathedral of Cape Town where he preached with all his might against the racist apartheid regime, these words take on their full meaning. “Madiba [nom de clan de Nelson Mandela] was the father of our democracy; Archbishop Tutu, his spiritual father, ”said the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to describe the unwavering bond between the two men. Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu who died on Boxing Day 2021 at the age of 90 has earned the respect and love of millions of South Africans and, beyond, around the world.
Early commitments
Born October 7, 1931 in Klerksdorp, in the Transvaal, Desmond Mpilo Tutu comes from a poor family. Her father is a schoolteacher. Her mother works in a school for the blind, where she is a cleaner and a cook. Desmond Tutu wants to become a doctor. A dream unattainable at that time. He then follows his father’s path and begins teaching English and history at Madibane high school in Soweto, then at Krugersdorp high school, west of Johannesburg, where his father was principal. He abruptly gave up following the introduction in 1953 of the Bantu Education Law, which imposed racial segregation in all educational establishments, including universities. Shortly before giving up this career and putting himself at the service of the Church as a sub-deacon, he married – although an Anglican – according to the Roman Catholic rite, Nomalizo Leah Shenxane.
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A vision of theology
He was ordained deacon of Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg in 1960, and became its first black dean in 1975. At that time, he met a certain Nelson Mandela in his classrooms. In 1966, he obtained his master’s degree in theology in London. There, he discovers a world without racial segregation. He returns to South Africa to teach theology in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and also wherever he can on the continent as associate director for Africa at Theological Education Fund. He returned to Johannesburg with new knowledge, especially on black theology, a current of thought that articulated Christianity and questions of civil rights, which would form the basis of his vision of the fight against apartheid.
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Bishop Tutu gets involved in the fight
An event will turn his life upside down. Stephen Bantu Biko – known as “Steve Biko” – was assassinated in 1977. Born in 1946, Steve Biko, born in the very poor neighborhoods of King William’s Town in South Africa, very quickly entered politics to defend a political ideology centered on the pride of black identity. He then founded the Black Conscience Movement, where he fought against apartheid – a regime that advocates racial segregation. Apartheid classifies populations into several categories: Whites, Indians, Métis and Blacks. This ideology also defines a geographical area according to ethnicity. The whites are given the cities, while the other ethnic groups are confined in ghettos, poor. Contact between whites and other ethnicities is limited. This policy was formalized in 1948 in South Africa, even if it has been in force since the arrival of white settlers on South African soil in the 17th century.e century. Openly racist ideology, apartheid wants “to ensure the security of the white race, and of Christian civilization”, in the words of Daniël Malan, leader of the National Party, in power in 1948. A racist system criticized loud and clear by Steve Biko, who advocates the emancipation of blacks by themselves. In 1976, he organized a series of demonstrations in the streets of Soweto, a poor South African township located 15 kilometers from Johannesburg. The goal ? Protest against the establishment of Afrikaans as the official language in education. Afrikaans is in fact the language of the oppressor, of the white settler who came to live in South Africa and advocates apartheid. The protests in Soweto quickly turn into riots, where many students are killed. The government represses the crowd with blood, and orders the arrest and imprisonment of members of black parties, like Steve Biko’s. The latter was arrested in mid-August 1977. On September 12, 1977, he died in prison, at the age of 30, officially because of the hunger strike. In fact, the autopsy shows that he suffered severe blows to the head. His death arouses emotion in the international community. The UN Security Council then decides to condemn the South African regime by imposing an embargo on the sale of arms.
During his funeral, Desmond Tutu takes charge of the preaching and pays homage to him. This is the start of a fight he will lead against apartheid, the “most pernicious system since Nazism”, a “diabolical invention” in his words.
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The theologian of Ubuntu
After this tragic event, Tutu participated in the underground meetings of the Black Consciousness Movement, and joined the black theology, which combines theology with the desire to free black peoples from oppression. At the same time, Desmond Tutu takes a closer interest in Latin American liberation theology. A current of thought inspired by Marxism, and which aims to defend the poor, who seek to emancipate themselves. This theology considers that there are systems in which there are dominants and dominated, and that it is necessary to move from a system of domination to an egalitarian system. He develops a reflection around the Ubuntu philosophy, centered on reconciliation and peace. In his work Reconciliation : The Ubuntu Theology, he recalls that: “Someone from ubuntu is open and available to others […] for he or she has his or her own self-esteem, which comes from knowing that he or she has to belong to something bigger. He feels diminished when others are diminished or humiliated, when others are tortured or oppressed. “
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The conscience of South Africa
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is arguably one of the world’s best-known human rights activists. He enjoys unfailing support and listening in the churches where he disseminates his messages and calls for peace: “Nothing will prevent us from becoming free, neither the police bullets, nor the dogs, nor the gas. tear gas, nor death. Nothing will stop us, because God is with us. “
In 1984, he received the Nobel Peace Prize at the University of Oslo for helping to find solutions to end apartheid. He continues his ascent and his path towards peace between peoples. Two years after his Nobel Prize, Desmond Tutu was appointed Archbishop of Cape Town. The first black person to hold this position, he denounces the pass, domestic passports which state that blacks are foreigners in their own country. He loudly calls for the creation of common schools, and ultimately fights for the end of apartheid, established since 1948.
In 1994, a key date for South Africa, since the first multiracial elections were organized. Nelson Mandela, released since 1993, is then the first black president to be elected at the head of the “rainbow nation”. The fates of Mandela and Desmond Tutu come together. The president asked him to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995. A more than important institution in the judicial process. For three years, Desmond Tutu must then list all the violations of human rights committed during apartheid. Objective: to allow reconciliation between the executioners and the victims. Its action will allow a considerable advance in the process of democratization of South Africa. Undisputed figure of peace in the world, he became a member of the High Council for the Alliance of Civilizations at the UN in 2005.
In 2009, he refused to support Jacob Zuma, during the elections, because he denounced the abuses of the ANC, (African National Congress), movement of Mandela. A party prone to political quarrels. Zuma is even suspected of corruption, although he is the favorite in the poll.
In 2010, he retired from political life, but continued to defend fights for peace. He condemns homophobia, asks black ministers to part with their luxury cars, denounces the policy of arms sales, and wants to introduce a tax against those who have profited from apartheid. On the religious level, he shakes up the sacred dogmas of the Church. In a forum, he said he was in favor of the freedom to choose the time of departure, for incurable patients.
Internationally, he protests against the dictatorial regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, which flouts human rights. In the Middle East, he denounces Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians or even Bush’s strategy in Iraq. In Asia, he campaigns for the UN intervention in the Rohingya humanitarian crisis in Burma. To save the climate, he calls for a boycott of fossil fuel companies, considered to be polluting.
Since the announcement of his death, messages of condolence and testimonies have been pouring in from all over the world. For his funeral, the shepherd Tutu chose, in his last message to men, the passage from the Gospel according to Saint John, where Jesus addresses his disciples after their last meal. A message of love. “My commandment is this: Love one another as I have loved you. “
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