Desmond Mpilo Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has died at the age of 90.
South African presidency in a statement expressed profound sadness at the passing today, of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu. Archbishop Tutu, the last surviving South African laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize, passed away in Cape Town.
Tutu is widely known for his anti-apartheid campaign, which resulted in him receiving a Nobel Prize in 1984. Aside from his anti-apartheid campaign, he has spoken out on many other causes as well.
The archbishop also served as the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the abolition of apartheid. He is known for coining the term "Rainbow Nation" to describe post-apartheid South Africa as a country where people of all racial and ethnic groups could live together in peace.
The Archbishop has been a "staunch advocate" for universal human rights, including the right to food, as well as the right to clean water, shelter, hygiene, sanitation and health care.
Alongside anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu was one of the driving forces behind the movement to end the policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991.
He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984 for his role in the struggle to abolish the apartheid system.
In his 1984 Nobel Lecture, Archbishop Tutu said, "Unless we work assiduously so that all of God's children, our brothers and sisters, members of our one human family, all will enjoy basic human rights, the right to a fulfilled life, the right of movement, of work, the freedom to be fully human, with a humanity measured by nothing less than the humanity of Jesus Christ Himself, then we are on the road inexorably to self-destruction, we are not far from global suicide; and yet it could be so different."
After the news of the Archbishop's demise broke out, Nelson Mandela Foundation issued a statement saying the loss of Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu is immeasurable. He was larger than life, and for so many in South Africa and around the world, his life has been a blessing.
"His contributions to struggles against injustice, locally and globally, are matched only by the depth of his thinking about the making of liberatory futures for human societies. He was an extraordinary human being. A thinker. A leader. A shepherd," the statement said.
When Nelson Mandela passed away in 2013, Archbishop Emeritus Tutu had said: "This is a man who cared." As the world mourns today the passing of the beloved Archbishop, the Foundation said "we, in turn, can say precisely the same of him."
( With inputs from ANI )
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