South Africa Holds State Funeral For Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The New Diplomat
Writer

Ad

An Unusual View Of Banditry, By Azu Ishiekwene

Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, is hardly in the news. Lawal has enough on his plate in a region struggling with banditry and insurgency, and in a state whose political heavyweights oppose him over political differences. He has learned to mind the state’s business, hardly ever throwing stones except when attacked by Abuja politicians who…

FBI Release Information About Suspects Linked to Murder of Charlie Kirk

FBI receives more than 130 tips Officials have received more than 130 tips, as of this morning. "I assure you that all leads and tips are being fully investigated," said Robert Bohls, special agent in charge of the FBI's Salt Lake City field office. He asked that anyone with video or images from the shooting…

Jubilation as Abuja court jails Ansaru leader Mahmud Usman 15 years for terrorism

By Obinna Uballa A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced Mahmud Usman, a top commander of the proscribed Ansaru sect, to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges. Usman, widely known by his aliases Abu Bara’a, Abbas, and Mukhtar, admitted to engaging in illegal mining and funnelling the proceeds into…

Ad

The funeral mass for South African anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu is taking place at a cathedral in Cape Town.

Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who helped end the racist regime in South Africa, died last Sunday aged 90.

His death prompted an outpouring of grief among South Africans.

Thousands have paid their respects at St George’s Cathedral where his body has been lying in state in a simple casket.

Tutu was one of the driving forces behind the movement to end the policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991.

Desmond Tutu – South Africa’s rebellious priest

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the main eulogy at the official state funeral on Saturday, where only 100 people are in attendance because of coronavirus restrictions.

Tutu had insisted there should be “no ostentatiousness or lavish spending” on the ceremony and that he be given “the cheapest available coffin”.

He also said the only flowers in the cathedral should be a “bouquet of carnations from his family”, according to the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

His ashes are to be interred behind the pulpit at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town – the Anglican diocese he served as Archbishop for 35 years.

It was earlier revealed that Tutu is to be aquamated – a process using water that is described as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation.

Many people in Cape Town turned up to file past the archbishop’s coffin as it lay in state.

One man, Wally Mdluli, hitchhiked more than 1,000km (620 miles) across the country from Bloemfontein to Cape Town – enlisting the help of family and friends to pay for some of the trip and even sleeping at a petrol station on the way.

“I feel fulfilled after I saw the coffin. It’s like his spirit is in me,” he told the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.

Tutu used his high-profile to speak out against oppression of black people in his home country, always saying his motives were religious and not political.

After Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, Tutu was appointed by him to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate crimes committed by both whites and blacks during the apartheid era.

Tutu was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984 for his role in the struggle to abolish the apartheid system.

He was also credited with coining the term Rainbow Nation to describe the ethnic mix of post-apartheid South Africa, but in his latter years he expressed regret that the nation had not coalesced in the way in which he had dreamt.

BBC

Ad

Unlocking Opportunities in the Gulf of Guinea during UNGA80
X whatsapp