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Important dates in the life of South African priest and freedom fighter Desmond Tutu by Reuters

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© Reuters. PHOTOGRAPHS: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner, speaking to the press at the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), September 5, 2001.

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CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) – Here are the key dates in Desmond Tutu’s life:

1931 – Desmond Tutu was born in Klerksdorp, a town about 170 km (105 miles) west of Johannesburg.

1943 – Tutu Methodist family joins Anglican church.

1947 – Tutu develops tuberculosis while attending high school near Sophiatown, Johannesburg. He loves the priest and serves in his church when he recovers.

1948 – The White National Party launches a campaign against apartheid in the run-up to the 1948 elections.

1955 – Tutu married Nomalizo Leah Shenxane and begins teaching at a high school in Johannesburg where her father is a head teacher.

1958 – Tutu drops out of school, refusing to be part of a program that promotes diversity among Black students. He joins the priesthood.

1962 – Tutu moves to Britain to study theology at King’s College London.

1966 – Tutu returns to South Africa and begins teaching theology at a seminary in the Eastern Cape. He also began to express his anti-racial views.

1975 – Tutu becomes the first Dean of the Anglican in Johannesburg.

1980 – As secretary general of the South African Council of Churches, Tutu leads a group of church leaders to Prime Minister PW Botha, urging him to end apartheid. Although nothing comes of this meeting it is a time of history when a black leader meets with a white government official. Government seizes Tutu passport.

1984 – Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to overthrow white supremacy.

1985 – Tutu becomes the first Black Bishop in Johannesburg. He openly acknowledges South Africa’s economic neglect and disobedience as a way to end apartheid.

1986 – Tutu becomes the first black person to be elected Bishop of Cape Town and head of the Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa. And some church leaders represent conflicts between black opponents and state security forces.

1990 – State President FW de Klerk lifts the ban on the African National Congress (ANC) and announces plans to release Nelson Mandela from prison.

1991 – Discrimination laws and anti-apartheid laws were abolished and power talks began between the government and 16 anti-apartheid groups.

1994 – After Mandela replaced the ANC in the country’s first democratic elections, Tutu used the term “Rainbow Nation” to describe the racial integration of South Africa after apartheid.

1994 – Mandela calls on Tutu to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was set up to hear, write and pardon those who violated human rights under apartheid.

1996 – Tutu resigned from the church to focus on the project. He continues to encourage one another, fostering equality and fellowship and is later named Archbishop Emeritus.

1997 – Tutu is diagnosed with prostate cancer. She has been hospitalized for a number of recurring illnesses.

2011 – The Dalai Lama has convened the annual Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture but did so via satellite when the South African government denied a Tibetan spiritual leader a visa to attend.

2013 – Tutu speaks openly about the ANC. He said he would not vote for the party because it had done well in dealing with inequality, violence and corruption.

2013 – Called the “moral compass of the nation”, Tutu announces his support for gay rights, saying he “will not worship a God who hates homosexuality”.

2021 – A weak-skinned Tutu is ushered into his old parish at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, where anti-apartheid protests were held, for a special Thanksgiving celebration to mark his 90th birthday.

Dec. 26, 2021 – Tutu dies in Cape Town, aged 90.


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