desmond tutu biography pdf in afrikaans

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Desmond Tutu : a biography

Bookreader item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

8 Favorites

Better World Books

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

No suitable files to display here.

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by Tracey Gutierres on September 17, 2013

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

Tutu, Desmond (South Africa)

• Reference work entry
• First Online: 01 January 2019
• Cite this reference work entry

192 Accesses

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download reference work entry PDF

Introduction

A leader of the South African religious community, Desmond Mpilo Tutu used his position to campaign against apartheid. Internationally respected, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his advocacy of non-violent protest. After the abolition of apartheid, he was appointed president of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born in Klerksdorp, Transvaal in 1931. His father was a teacher. In 1954 he graduated from the University of South Africa and became a schoolteacher. After 3 years of teaching he began to study theology. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1960, and lectured at a seminary in Johannesburg. During the years 1962–66 Tutu studied theology at Kings College, London where he obtained a master’s degree. From 1972–5 he served as an assistant director for the World Council of Churches.

Career Peak

In 1975 he was made dean of St Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg. Tutu was the first black person to hold such a position. In 1978 he was appointed general secretary of the South African Council of Churches to speak on behalf of the black South African majority. Unlike many other anti-apartheid campaigners, Tutu always advocated victory by non-violent means, and to this end he favoured the imposition of economic sanctions on South Africa.

In 1984 Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The following year he became Johannesburg’s first black bishop and in 1986 he was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town. This made Tutu the primate of the Anglican Church in South Africa. Following the collapse of apartheid Tutu became Chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (created in 1995), a body that called upon South Africans of all races to confess their past in the racial turmoil of the apartheid era. The fact that Tutu did not excuse outrages committed in the cause of liberation brought him into dispute with the ruling ANC.

Tutu retired from the primacy of the Anglican church in South Africa in 1996. He has published a collection of his lectures ( The Divine Intention ) and a separate collection of his sermons entitled Hope and Suffering.

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Limited

About this entry

Cite this entry.

(2019). Tutu, Desmond (South Africa). In: The Statesman’s Yearbook Companion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95839-9_799

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95839-9_799

Published : 02 April 2019

Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, London

Print ISBN : 978-1-349-95838-2

Online ISBN : 978-1-349-95839-9

eBook Packages : Political Science and International Studies Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Share this entry

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Tutu, Desmond

1931-2021 Anglican Communion South Africa

Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, about 179 km west of Johannesburg into a Methodist family that later became Anglican. His parents were Xhosa and Tswana, and his father was a teacher. He attended school at Johannesburg Bantu High School. He trained first as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and, in 1954, he graduated from the University of South Africa. He worked for three years as a high school teacher and then decided to study theology. He had wanted to pursue a medical career but could not afford the training.

In 1955, he married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane After his ordination as a priest in 1961, he pursued further theological study in England from 1962 to 1966, leading up to a Master of Theology. He taught theology in the Eastern Cape, South Africa from 1967 to 1972. At this time, he started to make his antiapartheid views known. He then returned to England for three years to become the assistant director of a theological institute in London. In 1975 he became the first Black Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg.

In 1985, at a time when townships were rising up in rebellions against the apartheid regime, Tutu was installed as the first Black Anglican bishop. He publicly endorsed civil disobedience and an economic boycott of South Africa to put an end to apartheid. A year later he was elected the first Black archbishop of Cape Town. With other church leaders, he mediated clashes between government forces and Black protesters. In 1988, he also became Chancellor of the University of Western Cape in Bellville, South Africa.

In 1990, President FW de Klerk unbanned the African National Congress (ANC) and announced the imminent release of Nelson Mandela from prison. Apartheid laws and racist restrictions were repealed the following year. 1994 saw the first democratic elections during which Mandela won by a landslide. At this time, Tutu coined the term “Rainbow nation” to describe the multiracial composition of post-apartheid South Africa.

Also in 1994, Mandela invited Tutu to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights violations under apartheid. In 1996, Tutu retired from his position as a primate and became archbishop emeritus, though continuing to work as a public figure. He pulled out of public life in 2010 but continued to advocate for conflict resolution with other world leaders in the group The Elders that he co-founded in 2007. In 2013 he criticized the ANC for its inaction in addressing questions of inequality, corruption, and violence. Through the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation ( https://www.tutu.org.za/ ), he and his wife worked to promote peace-building and conflict resolution to achieve reconciliation and cultivate accountable servant leadership.

Tutu was not afraid to critique the church that he had served for decades. When there was an uproar over the ordination of gay bishops in the Anglican Church, he criticized an “obsession” with homosexuality that overshadowed the clergy’s battle on poverty. This did not stop him from declaring his support for gay rights in 2013.

On October 7, 2021 he attended a thanksgiving service in honor of his 90th birthday at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, his former parish. He died on December 26, 2021 in Cape Town. According to Al Jazeera online:

His “clear views and fearless stance,” which made him a “unifying symbol for all African freedom fighters,” won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, according to the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Though short in stature, Tutu was a giant of South African politics, notable for his drive, infectious laughter and witty critiques of apartheid’s absurdities. In one example, he told followers: “Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.” “He was South Africa’s Martin Luther King – a Christian clergyman who worked, non-violently, for racial justice and equality,” Steven Gish, author of a biography on Tutu, told Al Jazeera. “He never hated his oppressors and always believed in dialogue and appealing to people’s moral conscience.”

He received honorary doctorates from a number of leading universities in the USA, Britain, and Germany. According to Britannica online:

Tutu authored or coauthored numerous publications, including The Divine Intention (1982), a collection of his lectures; Hope and Suffering (1983), a collection of his sermons; No Future Without Forgiveness (1999), a memoir from his time as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time (2004), a collection of personal reflections; and Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference (2010), reflections on his beliefs about human nature. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Tutu received numerous honours, including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009), an award from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation that recognized his lifelong commitment to “speaking truth to power” (2012), and the Templeton Prize (2013).

Michele Sigg

Bibliography:

Nobel Lectures, Peace 1981-1990 , Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Irwin Abrams, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997.

Al Jazeera online, December 26, 2021. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/26/key-dates-in-the-life-ofsouth-african-cleric-desmond-tutu . Accessed January 17, 2022.

“Desmond Tutu profile.” The Elders website. https://theelders.org/profile/desmond-tutu . Accessed January 17, 2022.

“Desmond Tutu.” Britannica online, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Desmond-Tutu . Accessed January 17, 2022.

Michele Sigg is the executive director of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

BlackPast is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.

Bishop desmond mpilo tutu (1931-2021).

Listen while you learn!

Hear a soundtrack specially chosen to enhance your learning about bishop desmond mpilo tutu (1931-2021).

Let it play in the background as you study and immerse yourself in this topic!

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, leader of the South African Anglican Church for ten years and campaigner against apartheid in South Africa, was born on October 7 th , 1931 in Klerksdorp, South Africa. When he was 12 years old he moved to Johannesburg where Tutu attended the Johannesburg Bantu High School. He then trained as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and graduated from the University of South Africa in 1954.

In 1948 the South African National Party came into power and began the apartheid system in South Africa. They banned black South Africans from voting, required blacks to have passports to travel within the country, and initiated a system of forced relocation of black South Africans out of “white areas.”  Tutu, who had planned to be a teacher upon graduation, refused to cooperate with a system which guaranteed black South Africans an inferior education. Instead, he moved into theology and was ordained as a priest in 1960. He then pursued a further study of theology in England between 1962 and 1966. When he returned to South Africa in 1966, he taught theology at an Anglican seminary until 1972. In 1975 he was the first black person to be appointed Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg and the following year he was named Bishop of Lesotho, a post he held until 1978.

When Tutu was made General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1978 he finally had a national platform from which to challenge apartheid. He began to attack the racist government, calling for equal rights for black South Africans, a repeal of the passport laws, and an end to forced relocation. In response, the South African government revoked his passport, thus prohibiting his travelling to spread his message. But Tutu’s cause had already caught the attention of the global community and, in response to worldwide pressure, his passport was restored to him.

Tutu continued his advocacy of nonviolent challenging of apartheid and in 1984 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. In 1986 he became Archbishop of Cape Town and head of the Anglican Church in South Africa. In 1994 Archbishop Desmond Tutu was appointed to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which investigated crimes against humanity committed under white rule. In keeping with his religion, Tutu espoused a policy of forgiveness whilst he headed this commission.

In 1996 Tutu retired as Bishop of Cape Town and was hired as the Professor of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Desmond Tutu died on December 26th, 2021 at the Oasis Care Centre in Capetown, South Africa at the the age of 90. Tutu is survived by his wife Leah and their four children.

Multimedia relating to Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu (1931-2021)

Do you find this information helpful? A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone.

BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. Your donation is fully tax-deductible.

Cite this entry in APA format:

Source of the author's information:.

Academy of Achievement website: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tut0bio-1 ; Website Nobelprize.org:  https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1984/tutu/biographical/ ; Dickson A. Mungazi, In the Footsteps of the Masters: Desmond M. Tutu and Abel T. Muzorewa (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2000).

Your support is crucial to our mission.

Donate today to help us advance Black history education and foster a more inclusive understanding of our shared cultural heritage.

• Member Interviews
• Science & Exploration
• Public Service
• Achiever Universe
• Summit Overview
• About The Academy
• Academy Patrons
• Delegate Alumni
• Directors & Our Team
• Golden Plate Awards Council
• Golden Plate Awardees
• Preparation
• Perseverance
• The American Dream
• Recommended Books
• Find My Role Model

All achievers

Archbishop desmond tutu, nobel prize for peace.

Listen to this achiever on What It Takes

What It Takes is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice.

Download our free multi-touch iBook Social Justice: Leadership Lessons — for your Mac or iOS device on Apple Books

The Social Justice iBook opens up the compelling, inspiring and selfless world of social justice, giving readers a better understanding of how empowering others, promoting equality and exposing injustice can change the very fabric of our society.

Biography Online

Desmond Tutu Biography

Tutu was born Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa on 7 October 1931. After graduating from school, he studied at Pretoria Bantu Normal College from 1951.  However, after the passage of the apartheid Bantu Education Act in 1953, Tutu resigned from teaching in protest at the diminished opportunities for black South Africans. He continued to study, concentrating on Theology. During this period in 1955, he married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane – they had four children together. In 1961, he was ordained an Anglican Priest.

Desmond Tutu at Vilakazi Street, Soweto. Photo Johan Wessels CC SA

In 1962, he moved to England, where he studied at Kings College London, where he gained a master’s degree in theology. He also became a part-time curate in St Alban’s and Golders Green.

In 1967, he returned to South Africa and became increasingly involved in the anti-apartheid movement. He was influenced amongst others by fellow Anglican Bishop Trevor Huddleston. Tutu’s understanding of the Gospels and his Christian faith meant he felt compelled to take a stand and speak out against injustice.

In 1975, he was appointed Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black to hold that position. From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches.

Campaign against Apartheid

In 1976, there were increasing levels of protests by black South Africans against apartheid, especially in Soweto. In his position as a leading member of the clergy, Desmond Tutu used his influence to speak firmly and unequivocally against apartheid, often comparing it to Fascist regimes.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

His outspoken criticism caused him to be briefly jailed in 1980, and his passport was twice revoked. However, due to his position in the church, the government were reluctant to make a ‘martyr’ out of him. This gave Desmond Tutu more opportunity to criticise the government than many other members of the ANC.

During South Africa’s turbulent transformation to end apartheid and implement democracy, Tutu was a powerful force for encouraging inter-racial harmony. He encouraged fellow South Africans to transcend racial differences and see themselves as one nation.

“Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.”

– New York Times (19 October 1984)

In the post-Apartheid era, Desmond Tutu is credited with coining the phrase ‘Rainbow Nation’ A symbolic term for the aspiration to unite South Africa and forget past divisions. The expression has since entered mainstream consciousness to describe South Africa’s ethnic diversity.

“At home in South Africa I have sometimes said in big meetings where you have black and white together: ‘Raise your hands!’ Then I have said: ‘Move your hands,’ and I’ve said ‘Look at your hands – different colors representing different people. You are the Rainbow People of God.’”

Sermon in Tromsö, Norway (5 December 1991)

Tutu has frequently called for a message of reconciliation and forgiveness. He has stated that real justice is not about retribution but seeking to illumine and enable people to move forward.

“There are different kinds of justice. Retributive justice is largely Western. The African understanding is far more restorative – not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew.”

– Desmond Tutu, “Recovering from Apartheid” at The New Yorker (18 November 1996)

Desmond Tutu on foreign policy

Desmond Tutu was critical of George Bush and Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq. He criticised the decision to single out Iraq for possession of weapons (which they later proved not to have) when many other countries had a far more deadly arsenal.

He has also been critical of America’s war on Terror, in particular highlighting the abuse of human rights in places such as Guantanamo Bay.

Desmond Tutu has been critical of Israeli attitudes to the occupation of Palestine. He has also been critical of the US-Israeli lobby which is intolerant of any criticism of Israel.

Tutu took part in investigations into the Isreali bombings in the Beit Hanoun November 2006 incident. During that fact-finding mission, Tutu called the Gaza blockade an abomination and compared Israel’s behaviour to the military junta in Burma. During the 2008–2009 Gaza War, Tutu called the Israeli offensive “war crimes.”

Tutu has also become involved in the issue of Climate Change, calling it one of the great challenges of humanity.

Social Issues

Desmond Tutu, Cologne, 2007. © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0

Desmond Tutu has been in the forefront of campaigns against the AIDS virus, especially in South Africa where the government have often been reticent. Desmond Tutu has a tolerant attitude to the issue of homosexuality. In particular, he despairs at the huge amount of time and energy wasted on discussing the issue within the church. According to Tutu, there should be no discrimination against people of homosexual orientation.

“Jesus did not say, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw some’ .” Jesus said, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw all, all, all, all, all . Black, white, yellow, rich, poor, clever, not so clever, beautiful, not so beautiful. It’s one of the most radical things.”

Tutu was the first black ordained South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. Other awards given to  Desmond Tutu include The Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and the Maqubela Prize for Liberty in 1986.

Since Nelson Mandela ‘s passing, Tutu became increasingly critical of the ANC leadership, believing they wasted opportunities to create a better legacy and end the poverty endemic in many black townships.

Tutu is one of the patrons of The Forgiveness Project, a UK-based charity which seeks to facilitate conflict resolution and break the cycle of vengeance and retaliation.

Tutu is a committed Christian and starts every day with a period of quiet, reflection, walk  and Bible reading. Even on the momentous day of 27 April 1994 when blacks were able to vote for the first time, Tutu wrote “As always, I had got up early for a quiet time before my morning walk and then morning prayers and the Eucharist. ”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Sri Chinmoy

Tutu is also a supporter of interfaith harmony. He admires fellow religious leaders, such as the Dalai Lama and feels that a person’s outer religion is not of critical importance.

“Bringing people together is what I call ‘Ubuntu,’ which means ‘I am because we are.’ Far too often people think of themselves as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”

Tutu died from cancer in December 2021, whilst being treated in Cape Town, South Africa.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan .  “ Biography Desmond Tutu” Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net – 13th March 2017. Last updated 1 March 2021

The Words and Inspiration of Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Words and Inspiration of Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Amazon

Rabble Rouser for Peace

Rabble Rouser for Peace at Amazon

Related pages

• Desmond Tutu Quotes
• 100 People who changed the world
• People who made a difference

External links

• Desmond Tutu at Wikipedia
• Desmond Tutu peace centre
• Tutu at Nobel Prize centre

Desmond Tutu, an icon who helped end apartheid in South Africa, dies at 90

Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a towering figure who helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, has died in Cape Town. He was 90.

His death was announced by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who called Tutu "a patriot without equal; a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead." Tutu had been hospitalized several times in recent years.

The passionate advocate for freedom headed the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990s, a grueling inquiry that investigated crimes during the apartheid era. It was widely seen as a crucial healing step during South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. The TRC became a model for similar commissions in other parts of the continent.

When Tutu voted for the first time in 1994 in South Africa's first democratic elections, he voiced the unbridled joy of a country emerging from a troubled past.

"I want to sing, I want to cry, I want to laugh. Everything together. And jump and dance," he gleefully told reporters. "The day has arrive — yippee!"

Watch the moment here:

It was a long journey to get to that ballot box. For Desmond Mpilo Tutu, the son of a high school principal, the church was not his initial vocation. After abandoning plans to go to medical school, he started off as a teacher. But the champion of justice felt that the inferior education the white-minority rulers were imposing on Black South Africans was an insult.

Tutu then turned to the priesthood and was ordained as a priest in the Anglican church in 1961. Fifteen years later, he became the first Black dean of Johannesburg and committed publicly to the fight against apartheid.

The campaigning priest was arrested more than once but drew strength from his beliefs and fellow South Africans, he said. He condemned all forms of violence and confronted both the apartheid police and vengeful Black mobs "necklacing" alleged spies by throwing tires around their victims and setting them alight. By now firmly on the international radar, Tutu warned the apartheid leaders that racism defied the will of God and apartheid would not succeed.

"The system of this country, apartheid, is immoral. The system of this country is evil," Tutu said during that period. "What must we say, which we have not yet said? What must we do, which we have not yet done? To tell the world that all we want is a new South Africa, where all, Black and white, will be able to live as equals."

In 1984, Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which recognized his work in the anti-apartheid struggle. "Let us work to be peacemakers," he said during his Nobel lecture . "If we want peace, so we have been told, let us work for justice. Let us beat our swords into ploughshares."

The archbishop later remarked, with his characteristic good humor, that one day no one was listening and suddenly, after the prize, anything he said — "the oracle has spoken!"

After Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president, he asked Tutu to chair South Africa's landmark Truth and Reconciliation Commission to look into the crimes of apartheid. For the Archbishop, the harrowing testimony was traumatic, and he broke down and wept with the survivors.

"One has been deeply humbled by those we have often called the ordinary people. Deeply humbled at their resilience, at the magnanimity of spirit that they have shown," he said.

In a 2010 interview with Morning Edition , he said the experience never shook his faith in God. "Perhaps if one listened only to the atrocities, and account of the atrocities that people committed, but we were constantly being bowled over by the extent to which people were ready and willing to forgive," he said.

Tutu has had health problems. Halfway through the Truth and Reconciliation process, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and successfully received treatment. Resilience and his sense of humor helped. He disclosed a recurrence of prostate cancer in 2005, though it did not have a noticeable effect on his hectic schedule until he retired. Tutu was in and out of the hospital in 2015 and again in 2016 for minor surgery to try to clear up recurrent issues with persistent infection linked to his cancer.

After he retired, the archbishop emeritus criticized what he considered the inadequacies of South Africa's new leaders, especially their failure to alleviate poverty. He also continued his quest for global peace and social justice, joining The Elders, a seasoned group of world leaders that includes Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan.

Nelson Mandela described the archbishop as a blessing and an inspiration.

Mary Robinson, the former Irish president who currently leads The Elders , said the group is "devastated" by the loss of the man known to many friends as "Arch."

"He inspired me to be a 'prisoner of hope', in his inimitable phrase," Robinson said. "Arch was respected around the world for his dedication to justice, equality and freedom. Today we mourn his death but affirm our determination to keep his beliefs alive."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.