DESMOND TUTU

FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:

 


  

DESMOND TUTU

(7 October 1931 – 26 December 2021)

 

 

Desmond Mpilo Tutu of South Africa was fond of truth to be respected, reconciliation to be attempted, and justice to be inaugurated. 


Tutu was one among the 5-member icon-club of peace, human-rights, human dignity, citizens' liberty, self-determination, and self-rule along with Albert John Luthuli (Zulu leader of the African National Congress-ANC from Natal), Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo (Pondo people's leader), Nelson Mandela (leader from the Xhosa population of the Eastern Cape), and Walter Sisulu (from mixed Xhosa and Motswana descent), not to speak of, and to top it all, the most-renowned peace and non-violence crusader and  Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

 


The departure of Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace laureate hailed as an icon and a major contributor instrumental to physical and legal abolition of Apartheid in South Africa and well known for his chairing the nation’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee, is an insurmountable and irredeemable loss to the whole world in general and to the equality-cum-human-rights-savvy people wherever they live, in particular.

 

Tutu was a crusader, guide, mentor, friend and moral compass, having grounded himself in the struggle for liberation and justice not only in his own country South Africa against the most wicked, atrocious, roguish and appalling practice of ‘Apartheid’ but he also raised his voice against whatever form of injustice meted out to any community on the basis of race, colour, creed, origin, ancestry, nativity, religion, region, etc. anywhere in the world.

 

A man of great intellect, integrity, indomitability, and resoluteness against people hell-bent upon cutting wedges and dividing people on all perceivable man-made barriers, he will be forever remembered for his relentless, sedulous, and unremitting campaign against the perpetration of Apartheid and the perpetrators. His compassion, empathy and concern for the less-privileged sections of the society and for their emancipation and empowerment were simply unmatched.

 

The movement of ‘equality of all’ and ‘protection of human-rights’ all over the world has suffered a jolt in his passing.

 

 

R.SAMPATH

28/12/2021

Comments

  1. Kamala Subramanian8 March 2023 at 09:24

    It was nice to read about Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu. It really gives goose bumps when you read about such great leaders who accomplished so much in their lifetime. His famous quote which tells it all is , "When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”- Bishop Desmond Tutu

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