© Jaco Marais / Pool via Archyde.com
Portrait of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, displayed during the state funeral at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, January 1, 2022.
The Cathedral of St. George in Cape Town was the scene in which family members and a hundred friends and associates dismissed the ecclesiastical leader, a key figure in the fight once morest ‘Apartheid’ and subsequent reconstruction of South Africa and recognized Nobel Peace Prize winner.
A hundred people came on January 1 to say goodbye to one of the latest figures in the fight once morest ‘Apartheid’, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whom his colleague in the fight once morest inequality, retired Bishop Michael Nuttall, referred to as the “voice of the silenced crowd” during the sermon he offered to dismiss him.
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FOLLOWING
At the austere funeral in the Cathedral of St. George, and with restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were not many who entered. Among his relatives, his widow, known as ‘Mama Leah’ among the community, who sat in the front row, wrapped in a purple scarf, the same color as her husband’s tunic.
“We thank you for loving our father. Because we share it with the world, you share part of the love that you felt, with us, so we are grateful,” said Mpho, Tutu’s daughter, at the funeral.
Public figures also attended, such as President Cyril Ramaphosa, former Presidents Thabo Mbeki (1999-2008) and Kgalema Motlanthe (2008-2009), King Letsie III of Lesotho, Mozambican activist Graça Machel -widow of Nelson Mandela- and the former Irish President Mary Robinson, close to the late leader.
“If the archbishop were here, he would have said ‘Why do you all look so sad?’ gave moments of joy to celebrate the legacy and life of the leader.
The fight once morest inequality, the unbreakable path of Desmond Tutu
Tutu had a strong trajectory marked by the defense of human rights and once morest racial segregation and injustice at all social levels, and his resistance to systematic discrimination in favor of the white population imposed by ‘Apartheid’ was forged for decades, alongside other figures such as Nelson Mandela.
After the fall of ‘Apartheid’, the figure of Desmond Tutu was transcendental in the reconstruction of the country and in the dismantling of the segregation regime. As a religious, he brought together black and white believers and it was he who coined the term “rainbow” nation that Mandela publicly applied.
He led, at Mandela’s request, the dialogue between the victims of oppression and the perpetrators, with the idea that it was necessary to know what happened to be able to forgive the crimes committed, and thus achieve that the country overcome the horror experienced during the ‘Apartheid’.
He also defended gender equality and opportunities for women and LGBT rights, as well as euthanasia; and he confronted the Church by considering that it perpetuated a discourse that oppressed the rights of citizens in these spaces.
His political position was no different. In his later years, he openly criticized corruption within the African National Congress, once Nelson Mandela’s party and currently led by President Cyril Ramaphosa. This group has been marred by multiple corruption scandals in recent years.
At the farewell ceremony, various choirs, present and virtual, sang which at one point sang the national anthem of South Africa, the symbol of the nation of the “rainbow” defended by Tutu all his life.
This closes a week of tributes to the renowned leader, to whom hundreds of citizens also went to visit and present their last goodbye this week, in a burning chapel installed in the Cathedral of San Jorge.
With AFP, Archyde.com and EFE
