Desmond Tutu

Desmond Mpilo Tutu (1931 - ) Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Laureate; a veteran anti-apartheid activist and peace campaigner widely regarded as ‘South Africa’s moral conscience’.

In 1978 Tutu, who had been appointed the South African Council of Churches’ general secretary, became a leading spokesperson for Black South Africans’ rights. During the 1980s, he played an unequalled role in drawing national and international attention to the injustices of apartheid. He stressed nonviolent means of protest and encouraged countries dealing with South Africa. to apply economic pressure. Awarding Tutu the 1984 Nobel Prize for Peace sent a powerful message to South African Pres. P.W. Botha’s administration. In 1985, during the height of the township rebellions in South Africa, Tutu became Johannesburg’s first Black Anglican bishop, and in 1986, the first Black Archbishop of Cape Town over South Africa’s 1.6 million-member Anglican church. In 1988 Tutu took a position as chancellor of the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, South Africa.

During South Africa’s moves toward democracy in the early 1990s, Tutu started the idea of South Africa as “the Rainbow Nation.” In 1995 South African Pres. Nelson Mandela appointed Tutu head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated allegations of human rights abuses during the apartheid era.

Tutu has mostly retired from public life but is still considered the moral conscience of South Africa for his leading role in the fight against apartheid. He now lives in Cape Town with his wife Leah, and together they run the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.