Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a central figure in changing the face of modern South Africa.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Anglican cleric, anti-apartheid leader, and human rights activist who was a central figure in changing the face of modern South Africa, died at the age of 90 in Cape Town earlier this morning.
Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on October 7, 1931, in what was then the Western Transvaal Union of South Africa to a Xhosa father and Motswana mother. The family was poor, but after his mother moved to Johannesburg to work as a cook at a school for the blind, Tutu began to excel academically, also cultivating his burgeoning fascination with Christianity and becoming a keen rugby player.
In 1985, Tutu was elected as Bishop of Johannesburg, again becoming the first Black man to hold the role. It came at a time of increasing racial tensions within the country, with violent clashes erupting between activists and the state.
Tutu’s theological perspective was also radical for its reconciliation of Christian values with the Black liberation theology movement that was growing in the U.S. and the anti-colonial beliefs inherent to the African theology movement in his home continent, despite opposition from the largely white, conservative religious leaders in the Western world.
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