In 1978 Desmond Tutu was
appointed general
secretary of the South
African Council of
Churches and became a
leading spokesperson for
the rights of black South
Africans. During the 1980s
he played an unrivaled role
in drawing national and
international attention to
the iniquities of apartheid,
and in 1984 he won the
Nobel Prize for Peace for
his efforts.
Early Life
Desmond Mpilo Tutu was
born on October 7, 1931 in
Klerksdorp, South Africa.
His father was an
elementary school
principal and his mother
worked cooking and
cleaning at a school for the
blind. The South Africa of
Tutu's youth was rigidly
segregated, with black
Africans denied the right to
vote and forced to live only
in specific areas. Although
as a child Tutu understood
that he was treated worse
than white children based
on nothing other than the
color of his skin, he
resolved to make the best
of the situation and still
managed a happy
childhood.
"We knew, yes, we were
deprived," he later
recalled. "It wasn't the
same thing for white kids,
but it was as full a life as
you could make it. I mean,
we made toys for ourselves
with wires, making cars,
and you really were
exploding with joy!" Tutu
recalls one day when he
was out walking with his
mother when a white man,
a priest named Trevor
Huddleston, tipped his hat
to her—the first time he had
ever seen a white man pay
this respect to a black
woman. The incident made
a profound impression on
Tutu, teaching him that he
need not accept
discrimination and that
religion could be a
powerful tool for
advocating racial equality.
Tutu was a bright and
curious child with a
passion for reading. He
especially loved reading
comic strips as well as
Aesop's Fables and the
plays of Shakespeare. His
family moved to the capital
city of Johannesburg when
he was 12 years old, and it
was around that time that
Tutu contracted
tuberculosis and nearly
died. The experience
inspired his ambition to
become a medical doctor
and find a cure for the
disease. Tutu attended
Johannesburg Bantu High
School, a grossly
underfunded all-black
school where he
nevertheless received an
excellent education. "The
people who taught us were
very dedicated and they
inspired you to want to
emulate them and really to
become all that you could
become," Tutu
remembered. "They gave
you the impression that, in
fact, yeah, the sky is the
limit. You can, even with all
of the obstacles that are
placed in your way; you
can reach out to the stars."
Tutu graduated from high
school in 1950, and
although he had been
accepted into medical
school, his family could not
afford the expensive
tuition. Instead he accepted
a scholarship to study
education at Pretoria Bantu
Normal College and
graduated with his
teacher's certificate in
1953. He then continued on
to receive a bachelor's
degree from the University
of South Africa in 1954.
Upon his graduation from
university, Tutu returned to
his high school alma mater
to teach English and
history. "I tried to be what
my teachers had been to
me to these kids," he said,
"seeking to instill in them a
pride, a pride in
themselves. A pride in
what they were doing. A
pride that said they may
define you as so and so.
You aren't that. Make sure
you prove them wrong by
becoming what the
potential in you says you
can become."
Rise to Prominence
Nevertheless, Tutu became
increasingly frustrated
with the racism corrupting
all aspects of South African
life under apartheid. In
1948, when Tutu was 17
years old, the National
Party won control of the
government and codified
the nation's long-present
segregation and inequality
into the official, rigid policy
of apartheid. In 1953, the
government passed the
Bantu Education Act, a law
that lowered the standards
of education for black
South Africans to ensure
that they only learned what
was necessary for a life of
servitude. The government
spent one-tenth as much
money on the education of
a black student as on the
education of a white one,
and Tutu's overcrowded
classes often included as
many as 80 pupils. No
longer willing to participate
in an educational system
explicitly designed to
promote inequality, he quit
teaching in 1957.
The next year, in 1958, Tutu
enrolled at St. Peter's
Theological College in
Johannesburg. He was
ordained as an Anglican
deacon in 1960 and as a
priest in 1961. In 1962, Tutu
left South Africa to pursue
further theological studies
in London, receiving his
master's of theology from
King's College in 1966. He
then returned from his four
years abroad to teach at the
Federal Theological
Seminary at Alice in the
Eastern Cape as well as to
serve as the chaplain of the
University of Fort Hare. In
1970, Tutu moved to the
University of Roma in
Lesotho to serve as a
lecturer in the department
of theology. Two years
later, he decided to move
back to England to accept
his appointment as the
associate director of the
Theological Education Fund
of the World Council of
Churches in Kent.
Tutu's rise to international
prominence began when he
became the first black
person to be appointed the
Anglican Dean of
Johannesburg in 1975. It
was in this position that he
emerged as one of the most
prominent and eloquent
voices in the South African
anti-apartheid movement.
Tutu explained, "I realized
that I had been given a
platform that was not
readily available to many
blacks and most of our
leaders were either now in
chains or in exile. And I
said, 'Well, I'm going to use
this to seek to try to
articulate our aspirations
and the anguishes of our
people.'"
In 1976, shortly after he
was appointed Bishop of
Lesotho, further raising his
international profile, Tutu
wrote a letter to the South
African Prime Minister
warning him that a failure
to quickly redress racial
inequality could have dire
consequences, but his
letter was ignored. Tutu
was selected as the
General Secretary of the
South African Council of
Churches in 1978, and he
continued to use his
elevated position in the
South African religious
hierarchy to advocate for
an end to apartheid. "I
never doubted that
ultimately we were going to
be free, because ultimately
I knew there was no way in
which a lie could prevail
over the truth, darkness
over light, death over life,"
he said.
In 1984, Desmond Tutu
received the Nobel Peace
Prize "not only as a gesture
of support to him and to the
South African Council of
Churches of which he is
leader, but also to all
individuals and groups in
South Africa who, with their
concern for human dignity,
fraternity and democracy,
incite the admiration of the
world." He was the first
South African to receive the
award since Albert Luthuli
in 1961. Tutu's receipt of
the Nobel Peace Prize
transformed South Africa's
anti-apartheid movement
into a truly international
force with deep sympathies
all across the globe. "It
opened doors which was
important for our people,"
he said about the award. "It
was important for our
people at that point in our
history because we were
tending to go off the radar
screen and this brought us
back spectacularly." The
award also elevated Tutu to
the status of a renowned
world leader. As he himself
put it, "You get the Nobel
Peace Prize and you say
the same thing that you
said before you got the
prize and now everybody
thinks, 'Oh, dear, the oracle
has spoken.'"
In 1985, Tutu was
appointed the Bishop of
Johannesburg, and a year
later he became the first
black person to hold the
highest position in the
South African Anglican
Church when he was
chosen as the Archbishop
of Cape Town. In 1987, he
was also named the
president of the All Africa
Conference of Churches, a
position he held until 1997.
In no small part due to
Tutu's eloquent advocacy
and brave leadership, in
1993 South African
apartheid finally came to
an end, and in 1994 South
Africans elected Nelson
Mandela as their first black
president. The honor of
introducing the new
president to the nation fell
to Tutu. He recalled that in
that triumphant moment he
whispered to God, "If I die
now, it would be almost the
perfect moment. This is the
theme for which we had all
been waiting for."
President Mandela
appointed Tutu to head a
Truth and Reconciliation
Commission tasked with
investigating and reporting
on the atrocities committed
by both sides in the
struggle over apartheid.
Personal Life
Tutu married a woman
named Leah Nomalizo on
July 2, 1955. They have
four children and remain
married today. Although he
officially retired from
public life in the late 1990s,
Tutu continues to advocate
for social justice and
equality across the globe.
In 2007, he joined The
Elders, a group of seasoned
world leaders including
Nelson Mandela, Kofi
Annan, Jimmy Carter and
others, who meet to
discuss ways to promote
human rights and world
peace.
Desmond Tutu stands
among the world's
foremost human rights
activists. Like Nelson
Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi
and Martin Luther King Jr.,
his teachings reach beyond
the specific causes for
which he advocated to
speak for all oppressed
peoples' struggles for
equality and freedom.
Perhaps what makes Tutu
so inspirational and
universal a figure is his
unshakable optimism in the
face of overwhelming odds
and his limitless faith in
the ability of human beings
to do good. "Despite all of
the ghastliness in the
world, human beings are
made for goodness," he
once said. "The ones that
are held in high regard are
not militarily powerful, nor
even economically
prosperous. They have a
commitment to try and
make the world a better
place."

Source:
http://www.biography.com/people/desmond-tutu-9512516