Desmond Tutu, a life dedicated to human rights

DESMOND TUTU, A LIFE DEDICATED TO HUMAN RIGHTS.

It's in Bexhill's peaceful area that yesterday, 21st of April 2012, our freelance journalist Patrice Llewellyn has met the most reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu, nowadays a retired anglican bishop, who fought tooth and nail against the apartheid during the 1980', and for this matter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, and many others.

Indeed, Tutu became one of South Africa's most outspoken critics of apartheid, as he claimed on one hand equal civil rights for all, and on the other hand a common system of education for black and white people. Although Tutu was motivated with religious teachings rather than a desire to enter into politics, his strong views clashed with the apartheid state. In fact, he constantly told the South African government that apartheid was contrary to the will of God and was doomed to failure.

Of course, he was allowed all this critisizm since he was appointed the first black Archbishop of Johannesburg in 1975. Later on, he continued his work against apartheid as he became Secretary General of South African Council of Churches. Through his writings and lectures at home and abroad, Tutu encouraged reconciliation between all parties involved in apartheid, and often compared apartheid to Nazism and Communism. In 1993, Tutu gathered a crowd of 120 000 people, repeating after him the chants, over and over: "We will be free!", "All of us!", "Black and white together!".

Almost twenty years after the fall of apartheid, Desmond Tutu, 80 years old, is still active when it comes to the defence of human rights: he has campaigned to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. Recently he has been a blunt critic of the mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

To finish, our journalist asked Desmond Tutu what determined him to choose the tortuous path of struggle for equality. "One day," said Tutu, "I was standing in the street with my mother when a white man in a priest's clothing walked past. As he passed us he took off his hat to my mother. I couldn't believe my eyes – a white man who greeted a black working class woman! From then on I thought it was the way things should always be, as well in South Africa as all over the world, and - although it will never be enough - I am doing my best to achieve this dream, little by little".

Patrice Llewellyn for The Sun

London

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