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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS TUTU

Mrs Nomalizo Leah Tutu celebrates her 91st birthday in Cape Town today. Mrs Tutu was married to Archbishop Desmond Tutu for 66 years. Trained as a teacher and a nurse, she was an activist in her own right, establishing South Africa’s first trade union for domestic workers while employed by the South African Institute  for Race Relations.

In this historic photograph, Mrs Tutu sits next to her younger brother, surrounded by grandchildren, grand nephews, and nieces. #Generations

WORLD OF WAR AND DIVISION CRYING OUT FOR A NEW GENERATION OF TOLERANCE

Remembering Desmond Mpilo Tutu: 7 October 1931 – 26 December 2021

Statement from Dr Mamphela Ramphele, chair of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust, and Mr Niclas Kjellstrom-Matseke, chair of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation…

7 October 2024

WORLD OF WAR AND DIVISION CRYING OUT FOR A NEW GENERATION OF TOLERANCE 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who would have turned 93-years-old today, was among the last of a generation of tolerance that emerged after World War Two to fight for a more just and equitable world. 

A generation that understood the necessity to establish a world body to gird the rights of all people regardless of colour, culture or creed.

A generation that dared to dream it was possible to change the course of history after centuries of conquest, seizure, and domination by those in power on the day.

A generation with the courage of its convictions to prosecute the struggles for equal rights and dignity, without regard for identity, in the US, in South Africa, in Myanmar, in South and Central America, in Australasia…

Most of this cohort of great leaders are gone, spared the agony of witnessing the global regression to intolerance, identity politics, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and survival of the militarily-and-economically-fittest.

On this day, a year ago, Hamas insurgents invaded Israel, killing nearly 1200 people, and taking more than 200 hostage. Israel’s genocidal vengeance led to 40 000 Palestinian deaths in the 10 months to August 2024, according to the United Nations, and the almost total annihilation of infrastructure in Gaza.

Most of the dead were non-combatants, and a large proportion were children and women. 

Now the hatred is rippling outward, threatening to engulf the region – and infect the world. 

We mark this anniversary of the birth of our beloved late South African Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, by reminding ourselves that he was a man of peace with an extraordinary grasp of human affairs and the human condition.

Tutu understood with great clarity that Israel/Palestine was no ordinary patch of land. Due to its history, and centrality to Christians, Muslims and Jews, events there weighed particularly heavily on the world, he said.

The development of technology has shrunk the world into what some call a “global village”, but people in the village have yet to develop the skills to live in a sustainable community. They continue to regard each other as competitors, rather than collaborators.

Archbishop Tutu said all human beings were sisters and brothers in one human family, which he called God’s family. He supported the struggle for justice in Palestine, as he supported the struggle for justice in South Africa, because he viewed the oppression of one group of people by another as a sin. A free and equal Palestine would benefit all of humanity, not least the people of Israel, he said.

The biggest tragedy that has unfolded in Gaza, broadcast live across the world, is that nobody has stopped it. 

We call on all nations to re-avow their support for the United Nations, and its democratization after more than 75 years of veto domination by a handful of powerful countries. Its present dysfunctionality places humanity at risk. 

And we call on those who are presently in positions of power to remember their shared humanity, and tone down the rhetoric of identity politics. They must be held to account because they are teaching our children to hate one another. 

If occupants of the global village don’t quickly find tolerable means to resolve their differences and build common purpose, what chance do we have of resolving the greatest existential threat of our time: Climate change brought on by greed and consumptiveness?

Ends…

Distributed for Dr Ramphele and Mr Kjellstrom-Matseke from Desmond & Leah Tutu House, Cape Town, South Africa. For more information: Benny Gool (082 5566 556) / Roger Friedman (079 8966 899). 

Love thy neighbour: Tutu Memorial Park proposed opposite Arch’s home in Milnerton

Mayor of Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis has kicked off  the legal process to re-name an open piece of land opposite the Tutu home in Milnerton, Cape Town, Desmond Tutu Memorial Park.

The proposed re-naming, development of a children’s play park and amphitheatre, and indigenous landscaping, was initiated by members of the Milnerton community who approached their councillor with the concept soon after the Archbishop’s passing in December 2021.

At a small ceremony on the property to announce the project this week, at which Mrs Leah Tutu was the guest of honour, Hill-Lewis said the city intended to create a vibrant and beautiful space, embedded with the Tutu’s values.

Welcoming the project, chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu Intellectual Property Trust, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, spoke of the delicious irony of a suburb, named after colonial governor Lord Milner, who believed in the superiority of the British race, opening its heart to Archbishop Tutu, who fought against racial superiority and injustice all his life.

In recognition of his lifelong work for justice and one human family, the Archbishop received significant awards and honours from governments and organisations around the world. Each of them was special, Dr Ramphele said, but to be honoured by his neighbours and local community was extra special.

“It is an authentic local tribute of love and respect for the Tutu family from the community they have been part of for nearly 30 years. The only condition the Trust imposed on the project was that it be thrifty. The Arch would not havewanted the City to incur a great expense,”  Dr Ramphele said.

She thanked the mayor and his team for accepting the Milnerton Ratepayers’ Association’s proposal, developing it, and bringing the project to life.

The proposed project is now out for public comment.

CHIEF MANDELA CALLS ON SOUTH AFRICA TO INTENSIFY BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL

At a press briefing calling for the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza, Inkosi Zwelivelile Mandela called on South Africa’s government to ban Israel’s national airline from flying to Johannesburg, to close the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria, and stop supplying coal to Israel.

Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers, called on the South African government to reinstate Naledi Pandor to her position as Minister of International Relations.

Speaking from Italy, Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatrician and Doctors Without Borders’ spokesperson on Gaza, accused Israel of the systemic targeting of hospitals and health care workers, saying doctors released from Israeli detention related being tortured, sexually assaulted and told that they are “the scum of the earth”.

Speaking from Germany, Reverend Mpho Tutu-Van Furth said that her father had battled serious illnesses throughout his life, and lived to the age of 90 because of the care he received from doctors. Had Archbishop Tutu been born in Gaza, he would unlikely have survived to adulthood, she said.

Former member of South Africa’s liberation movement and retired Constitutional Court Judge, Albie Sachs, said he was proud to be a member of the Jewish faith. “If anyone has a particular hatred of oppression it should be the Jews,” he said. He said South Africa’s lesson of forging peace depended on enemies speaking to each other, and that this applied to Israel and Palestine, too.

In a letter read out at the event, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba said: “Israel and Hamas must accept the (UN) resolution (for a ceasefire) immediately and unconditionally, failing which all who supply them with weapons must apply a comprehensive arms embargo against them.

“The future of Israel and the security of its people lie only through achieving justice for the Palestinians.”

The briefing was moderated by Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust, and Ms Janet Jobson, CEO of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

PRECIOUS DEMOCRACY

Mrs Leah Tutu casts a special vote at home in Cape Town today (Monday 27 May 2024) ahead of the seventh general election of the post-apartheid era on Wednesday. Mrs Tutu was denied the right to vote in the country of her birth until she was in her 60s.

STAINED GLASS WINDOW COMMEMORATING ARCHBISHOP TUTU REVEALED AT HIS BELOVED CATHEDRAL IN CAPE TOWN

Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba unveiled the new window at St George’s Cathedral on 21 April 2024 during a farewell service for Dean Michael Weeder, who is retiring. The service was attended by Mrs Leah Tutu and several members of the extended family. Archbishop Tutu’s ashes were interred in the cathedral on New Year’s Day in 2022. The new window was designed by Cape Town-based stained glass artist Anika van der Merwe.

DESMOND & LEAH TUTU HOUSE

Address by Dr Mamphela Ramphele at the ceremony on 20 February 2024 to rename a historic building in Cape Town, Desmond & Leah Tutu House.

Desmond & Leah Tutu House will forefront Arch’s healing ministry

There was a thought-provoking article in City Press this week reflecting on the Netherlands’ declaration of a “Slavery Memorial Year” to mark the 150th anniversary of abolition.

The Dutch were leading protagonists in the slave trade for 300 years. They shipped more than 600 000 Africans to the Americas, and enslaved up to a million Asians.

Between 1652 and 1807, the Dutch East India Company brought 60 000 slaves to South Africa. Some of them were put to work right here, constructing what was to become known as the Old Granary.

The gist of the City Press article was that while the Netherlands’ declaration of a Slavery Memorial Year prompted heated national debate in former Dutch colonies in the Americas, and in Indonesia, South Africa’s response had been relatively muted.

The author speculates this could be because the horrors of the slave trade were overtaken in our national consciousness by the more recent horrors of apartheid.


One of the biggest problems we’ve been brewing over the 30 years of our democracy is under-acknowledging our past. This has profoundly negatively impacted the national healing process.

While the country transitioned, politically, from apartheid to democracy, many people continue to lead the same lives, continue to live on the margins – now, with diminishing hope.

We talk about empowering black people and women, but the face of poverty remains that of a black woman – while incidents of gender-based violence go through the roof.

I don’t need to list the inequalities and continuing injustices many citizens live with today…

The bottom line is that we can’t build a successful democracy on foundations of injustice.

If we had properly acknowledged the past, and the necessity to heal, there would have been more focus on the restoration of dignity, and on redress; more accountability for apartheid murderers who thumbed their nose at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; more self-esteem and less impunity. More justice.

The Archbishop understood this equation with great clarity.

The reverberations of history don’t self-medicate and disappear; they endure. They may remain dormant for years, but without healing they will return, as they have in the US, where descendants of slaves are organising class suits to receive compensation for multi-generational trauma.

It’s not too late.

That then-Mayor De Lille had the foresight to marry this grand remnant of the slave-era to Desmond and Leah Tutu created a profound symbol of healing in our city.

Our pledge to the people of Cape Town is to honour the names of our founders through working to position Desmond and Leah Tutu House as a headquarters for the healing of what the Arch termed the human family.

That’s all of us, Capetonians and South Africans, and the rest of our siblings, from Suriname to Malaysia to Palestine to Sudan…


Sisters and brothers…

The Arch was a pastor without borders, a teacher and a healer. The honorary degrees he received from top universities across the world collectively conferred on him the unique title of Doctor of the Soul.

Whether engaging young people living with TB in an impoverished township in Cape Town, politicians in parliament, academics at top universities, church congregations, or people at large – through engagements with the media – he exuded the same compassion and the same hope.

He travelled around the world to speak to people about the important issues of our time, often not in their first language, but everyone understood.

Once asked to describe the Archbishop, his dear friend Harry Belafonte responded: “He IS Martin Luther King Junior… He IS Mahatma Gandhi… He IS on the path and mission of Jesus Christ.”

How do we do justice to the legacy of such a person?

How do we continue to propagate Arch’s wide-ranging wisdom, on a plethora of topics, not as a mechanism to glorify him, but to re-use the valuable lessons he taught to navigate a more compassionate future?

What value can we contribute, in Arch’s name, to Cape Town becoming a recognised global centre for peace and humanity, as Atlanta in the US is recognised as a key centre for civil rights and justice?

Having a place of the space and stature of this historic building to call home is a critical advantage.

We feel very proud to have gathered today at Desmond and Leah Tutu House. Proud, and blessed to be able to celebrate this event in the presence of our dearly beloved Mrs Nomalizo Leah Tutu.


Honoured guests…

One of the advantages of calling this house, Desmond & Leah Tutu House, is that it creates a collective noun for the endeavours of its tenants, the sister organisations, the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, and the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust.

The Foundation is externally orientated, developing programmes and relationships, from the permanent exhibition behind me, to the annual international peace lecture, to an array of projects engaging children and young adults on issues of peace, humanity and justice…

The Trust is internally orientated, managing copyrights, trademarks and permissions. It is undertaking the enormous task of gathering the Arch’s intellectual property together into a usable digital archive. It is undertaking the work in partnership with the Foundation and universities associated with Arch in the US, UK and South Africa.  

Though separately structured, the Foundation and Trust often speak with one voice. That voice will henceforth emanate from Desmond and Leah Tutu House.


To conclude, I want to briefly take exception to William Shakespeare’s opinion, expressed though Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, that what we name things is not a big deal.

“What’s in a name,” she asked? “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”

South Africa has witnessed the re-naming of much public infrastructure over the past 30 years – mostly from names glorifying colonial and apartheid history to names of people who were involved in the country’s liberation.

There has been little allowance in the overall re-naming project for non-politicians, in general, and non-ANC members, in particular.

But, the thing is, dear Juliet, that that which we called HF Verwoerd Drive smells much sweeter now that it’s called after Bram Fisher.

“The Old Granary”, on the face of it, is a name that speaks to function. But it’s not an innocent name because it wasn’t an innocent function. Its function was to support the colonial extraction of resources, in this instance our food for European tables.

Desmond and Leah Tutu House has an altogether more perfumed sound.

That aside, it is wonderful affirmation of the Arch and Mrs Tutu, global citizens born in Klerksdorp and Krugersdorp, respectively, who embraced this Mother City as their home.

It is important acknowledgement of their role in our history.

Acknowledging the righteous among us, and addressing the injustices with which they wrestled, affords us the opportunity to exchange disturbingly unresolved reverberations of history with aspirations of healing and of hope…

… Which is more or less the intention behind the Dutch government’s year-long consideration of the impacts of its centuries of slavery.

Thank you to all in the City of Cape Town, in this and previous administrations, who translated the dream of establishing a Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in the city into the reality we behold today.

As Arch would have said: God bless you all.

ICJ on Israel and Palestine: One small step for humankind

The International Criminal Court’s order on provisional measures to stop Israel’s annihilation of Palestine and Palestinians falls considerably short of the demand for an immediate ceasefire that South Africa sought.

The measures will not put an immediate stop to the bombardment of Gaza, which South Africa charges amounts to genocide, and if Israel ignores the order no mechanisms exist to force it to do so.

The order is nonetheless critically important: 

  • It reflects the court’s consideration that there may be merit in South Africa’s charge that Israel’s onslaught on Gaza amounts to genocide;
  • It is an official finding of Israeli misconduct by a court representing the entire world, unswayed by the political and/or ideological and/or economic interests of individual nations (however powerful); and
  • It is an indictment on the old-world structure of the United Nations that affords some nations more powers than others, and has enabled the United States to use its veto to block resolutions calling for ceasefire.

Most critically, it affirms that Palestinians are human beings, with human rights – and not animals, as senior Israeli officials have contended. 

The United States, and other nations in the global north which have aligned themselves behind Israel’s military actions, must now do the right thing and pressure Israel to implement the order of the world’s court.

Applying such pressure, against their geo-political instincts, would represent a giant leap for humankind. Failure to do so would, conversely, place them in the same league as others who have ignored world court rulings such as Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Providing food, water and medical provisions to Palestinians does not imply support for Hamas, or the nature of its 7 October 2023 attack on Israel that targeted civilians. 

Nor does criticising Israel’s response to the attack amount to anti-Semitism; it is about equality. It says that, as an inter-dependent species, we should all play life by the same moral and ethical rules. 

South Africans should be proud to have played a strong hand in asserting that fact. It provides a glimmer of light to a gloomy world of violent self-interest and division.

Ends…

* This statement was issued for Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chairperson of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust.

Renaming the Old Granary Building: Desmond and Leah Tutu House

The City of Cape Town today launched a 2-week public participation process to rename the Old Granary Building, Desmond and Leah Tutu House. Below is the speech delivered at the event by Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust.

Sisters and brothers…

To begin with, a huge bouquet to the City of Cape Town for its foresightedness and generosity.

This historic building with a dashing new name now officially represents both our past and future. A new name that is globally linked to the value-system of an icon of humanity, and his collaborator-in-chief, in what became their home town.

It houses the sister organisations that the Archbishop established to care for his intellectual heirloom and reputational interests, and propagate his values –  respectively, the Archbishop Tutu Intellectual Property Trust, and the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

It is therefore more-or-less equivalent to the Martin Luther King Centre in Atlanta, or the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi.

The next step is to attract equivalent numbers of tourists, historians and academics to share our valuable treasures. We’re working on it.

There is already a first-class exhibition of the Arch’s Leadership and Ministry to interact with; the Foundation manages a number of values-based public programmes; and the Trust is on the brink of launching the first phase of a huge digital archiving project in collaboration with several national and global universities.

Watch this space, as they say.

My beloved fellow citizens,

Proverbs 17 tells us: “A joyful heart is good medicine but a crushed spirit dries up the bones”.

I have no doubt that the Arch is smiling today, with gratitude, but even more so at the irony of this great edifice, a symbol of colonial conquest built by slaves, now bearing the names of a couple from ekasi!

The irony of a space used to imprison women, and as a courtroom to enforce oppressive laws of the past, now being used to advance tolerance, morality, equality and love!

The Arch loved to laugh, and to promote laughter in others, because he viewed our ability to laugh as an important expression of our humanity, and therefore of Godliness.

“God really does has an incredible sense of humour,” he’d say after receiving an important award, as if he, himself, had very little to do with it.

The Arch loved telling jokes, often laughing uproariously – even at the 27th telling. He was enormously gifted at using humour to convey serious and important messages.

One of the stories he told often in his old-age, usually after apologising to his audience for being what he termed “a decrepit”, was about a school in the Netherlands being renamed after him.

The school was several hundred years old. When he got to the re-naming event, one of the children asked if he was older than the school. Many listeners laughed at that point, but it wasn’t the punchline.

The punchline was that the school had since been re-named after someone else.

In the darkest days of apartheid, the Arch described himself as a prisoner of hope. He couldn’t be a prisoner of hope without joy in his heart.

No matter what the system threw at him, no matter how much pain he absorbed ministering to people with angry and broken hearts, presiding at funerals, witnessing injustice, it couldn’t crush his spirit or dry his bones.

As if powered by Duracell batteries, he just kept popping up to remind us of our sisterly and brotherly responsibilities, our inter-dependence – while administering hope and optimistic joy.

In a world beset with problems of consumptiveness and greed, inequality and ecological disaster – in a country in which 30 years of so-called freedom that has largely failed to right the embedded wrongs of 350 years of: theft, division and oppression – it is critically important to recognise and promote human values.

Were Arch here today he’d obviously be hugely grateful to be so magnificently acknowledged. He’d also recognise the irony, tell the story about the Dutch school, and understand the deeper meaning to the cycle of society and of life.

Arch in 91 lines

A 91-point biography of Archbishop Tutu on his 91st birthday



  1. Clan name: Tshezi

  2. His sisters called him: Boy

  3. Health: Overcame polio, severe burns and then TB in his childhood

  4. Household chores: Not very diligent, elder sister Sylvia recalled; he’d cry when told to fetch water in the yard.

  5. Discipline at home: His father was a great disciplinarian… “when you did something wrong he’d wallop you,” his younger sister, Gloria said

  6. Mrs Aletta Tutu: To augment the family income, his mother washed clothes for white families and, later, at a school for disabled children

  7. Role-model: He described his mother as an extraordinarily loving and compassionate woman, always the peacemaker – and sought to emulate her kindness throughout his life

  8. Trevor Huddleston: A good priest from England whom he first met on the street outside his township home, and had an indelible impression on his life; he called his only son, Trevor

  9. Apartheid heartland: His father taught in a number of small towns in the then- Transvaal before settling in Krugersdorp. Growing up, he thus came to know well about separate entrances for Blacks, and being humiliated by Whites

  10. Reading: He read comics in his youth

  11. Sport: Played cricket – described by Mrs Tutu as looking peculiar in his whites (cricket didn’t have a big footprint in their township at the time)

  12. Hunter-gatherer: He’d sometimes accompany his father on fishing expeditions for the family table

  13. Debater: Up-and-coming lawyer Nelson Mandela once attended an inter-school debate in which he was a participant, but they didn’t meet until after Madiba’s release

  14. Teacher: Followed his father into teaching, but changed professions due to introduction of apartheid education policy

  15. Grandmother’s vision: His grandmother had dreamed he’d become a priest when he was very young, which was never forgotten by the family. When he decided to study for the priesthood it was thus not a huge surprise – though his father was unimpressed

  16. Fame: Said few might have heard of him were it not for the instantly recognizable shape of his nose, and easily pronounceable name

  17. Discrimination: He described apartheid to schoolchildren in Sweden as being similar to a society in which people with big noses lived bountiful lives while people with small noses had nothing

  18. Love: Married his sister’s best friend, and father’s favourite pupil, Nomalizo Leah Shenxane

  19. Romantic: Took great care with wedding and anniversary gifts for Leah, to whom he was married for 66 years

  20. First marital home: A converted garage

  21. Would-be doctor: Accepted to medical school, but unaffordable. Six decades later joined final year medical student practicals at Tygerberg Hospital for the experience

  22. A doctor’s handwriting: Polio affected his right hand and forced him to write with his left

  23. Graduate: University of South Africa and King’s College London

  24. Language: Besides speaking, or at least understanding, most of South Africa’s 11 official languages, he also knew a bit of Greek and Latin from his schooldays

  25. The King’s English: Fastidious about grammar, he loathed split infinitives

  26. Curate: Served as a curate in Golders Green, London,and at Bletchingley in Surrey

  27. First Black: Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, Bishop of Johannesburg, Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches, Archbishop of Cape Town…

  28. Second SA Nobel Peace Laureate: The first was President of the ANC, Inkosi Albert Luthuli; both were rewarded for their contribution to the struggle against apartheid

  29. Voice for the voiceless: Long-serving apartheid Foreign Minister Pik Botha told of being sent to London to do “damage control” after cabinet discussions about the impact of the Arch’s speeches and interviews

  30. Spatial injustice: Declined to apply for a permit to live in the Deanery, in a whites-only suburb of Johannesburg. Lived in Soweto, instead

  31. Defiance of Group Areas Act: When appointed Archbishop of Cape Town he moved into the official residence in Bishopscourt without seeking the State’s approval

  32. Never joined a political party: After the unbanning of South African political organisations, he asked members of the clergy not to join political parties because he said, in a violent environment, they should be able to minister to all in their communities

  33. Your vote is your secret: After first getting the chance to participate in South African elections in his 60s, he never said who he voted for

  34. Morning drink: Preferred hot chocolate, but served coffee in bed to Leah at 6am every morning

  35. Beverage: Learned to drink Rum and Coke in Barbados but later turned to Appletizer

  36. Main course: At home, Mrs Tutu sought to serve meals comprising five different colours

  37. Braai: He loved barbecued meat and never considered becoming a vegetarian

  38. Custard: Loved it

  39. Ice-cream: Rum and raisin; later vanilla

  40. Teatime: Chocolate cake wasn’t his favourite

  41. Faith: Eucharist daily, regardless of location in the world

  42. Friday habit: Presided over morning service on Fridays at St George’s Cathedral for many years after formally retiring, followed by coffee (and hot chocolate) with friends at a local coffee shop

  43. Intercessory prayer: Maintained daily lists to enable him to pray for people by name, those who were sick, those who had suffered bereavements and those in need – including for apartheid leaders to mend their thinking, and for leaders in the democratic era, too

  44. Bomb-proof: The small chapel built alongside his Soweto home in the 1980s, when it was feared he may be targeted by forces acting in the interests of the regime

  45. Criticising President A: In 2004 he told then President Thabo Mbeki: “Thank you Mr President for telling me what you think of me, that I am a liar with scant regard for the truth, and a charlatan posing with his concern for the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the voiceless. I will continue to pray for you and your government by name daily as I have done and as I did even for the apartheid government.”

  46. Criticising President B: In 2011 he told then-President Jacob Zuma that he did not represent him, and warned that he would pray for the demise of the ANC as he had done for the demise of the National Party

  47. Dalai Lama: He regarded His Holiness’ ability to fill large US stadia as a sign of peoples’ yearning for human-centered leadership

  48. Retreat: Aimed to spend at least eight days a year on retreat, and one quiet day per week. Among his soul-charging destinations was a retreat center in the woods near the small Swedish town of Rattvik where life is conducted in silence

  49. God’s sense of humour: When appointed to chair The Elders, he said the fact that he, a lowly South African township urchin, was chairing a committee that included a former US President and UN Secretary-General, was evidence of God’s sense of humour

  50. His own sense of humour: He used humour as a platform to convey important messages, laughing uproariously at every telling – though he was sometimes guilty of missing the punchline of jokes told by others

  51. Example of humour: He liked making himself the butt of his own stories, such as the one about rowing a small boat with apartheid President PW Botha when the wind came up, blowing Botha’s hat into the water. Jumping up, he (the Arch) walked across the water to retrieve it – only for the papers to report the following day that he couldn’t swim…

  52. Irony: He said the fact that landlocked Zimbabwe had a marine resources department was no stranger than apartheid South Africa having a department of justice

  53. Meditation: Communicating with God was not as simple as picking up a phone and dialing the number, he said. It was a process that he likened to sitting next to a fire, and beginning to take on the attributes of the fire, its warmth and glow, until reaching the point of feeling at one with the fire

  54. God and democracy: During the anti-apartheid struggle and, later, at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, colleagues who subscribed to democratic processes were sometimes taken aback by his prayerful decision-making… How do you argue with God, they asked?

  55. “God doesn’t just zap the baddies”: Though right always eventually triumphed over wrong, he said, God created humans as moral beings with the gift of being able to choose right from wrong, and with the freedom even to choose wrong

  56. Letterhead: For years, his letterhead included the verse (1 John 4:7): “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”

  57. Forgiveness: Said he would be open to forgiving even Adolf Hitler if Hitler acknowledged his sins and asked for forgiveness

  58. Generosity: When media asked what he did with prize money, he responded that the left hand shouldn’t know what the right is doing (Matthew 6:3, and the Holy Koran)

  59. Personality weakness: Felt uncomfortable about feeling comfortable in the limelight

  60. Fitness: Walked daily, often picking up litter

  61. Apple or Android: Apple; he embraced modern communication technology and was a serial emailer maintaining personal contact with hundreds of friends

  62. Drive: When US billionaire Warren Buffett offered to buy him a car, he chose a Toyota Corolla 1.3

  63. Driver: The State assigned him a driver during the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. When former President Mandela later saw him driving himself, he arranged for a sponsor to pay for a driver. In latter years, the Arch was driven by his son-in-law, Mthunzi.

  64. Mechanical skill: None. Mrs Tutu did a mechanic’s course to avoid having to deal with hostile small-town mechanics when on long trips taking the children to and from school…

  65. Padkos: To avoid unfriendly small-town restaurants, the preparation of ample food before leaving home was a key part of the journey

  66. What he did the road: Demanded long periods of silence in order to do his prayerful work, a tall order for others in the car

  67. DIY skill: None; Mrs Tutu’s department

  68. Male chauvinism: He eschewed it… he’d shock male colleagues with whom he shared a meal by jumping up first to clear the dirty dishes and plates

  69. Security: Had a guard at his front gate while chair of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, to whom he served coffee daily at 6am

  70. Fan: Committed cricket and rugby fan to the point of throwing things at the television screen

  71. “The Beast”: Helped ex-Zimbabwe rugby player Tendai “The Beast” Mtawarira to attain South African citizenship, opening the way for a storied Springbok career

  72. Not much of a swimmer: Richard Branson gave him swimming lessons in 2008

  73. Cancer: Lived with prostate cancer for more than 20 years

  74. Cheesekop: Shaved his head daily for the last 10 years of his life

  75. Sartorial style: When he told Nelson Mandela it would be fitting for him to wear a suit, Mandela responded it was rich advice coming from a man in a pink frock

  76. Pink or purple: He said the colour of his cassocks was purple (the colour associated with Archbishop’s since the 5th century)

  77. The environment: Described climate injustice as the human rights challenge of our time

  78. Holy land: A stern critic of the state of Israel for its treatment of Palestinians he was accused by some of being anti-Semitic, though he prayed equally for Jews, Muslims and Christians caught up in the conflict

  79. Myanmar: Kept a photograph of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on his desk while she was under house arrest, but after her ascension to the office of State Counsellor roundly criticized her inaction in response to the genocide of the Rohingya

  80. George Bush and Tony Blair: He called for them to be tried for lying about the reasons for invading Iraq in 2003: “The then leaders of the United States and Great Britain fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart”

  81. Gender: Said male leaders had brought the world to the brink of destruction, and strongly advocated for more women leaders

  82. Sexuality: He would not worship a homophobic God

  83. Abortion: When anti-abortion demonstrators wanted an Cape Town abortion clinic to remove a poster of the Arch in the foyer, he insisted that the poster should remain

  84. Universal Health Care: Anxious that the excellent health care he received should be extended to all South Africans, he strongly supported global initiatives to use technology to expose patients in far-flung areas to the attention of medical specialists

  85. Dignified dying: Believed terminally ill patients should have the right to choose to disavow treatment and be supported to die in dignity

  86. The word he most struggled to say: “No”.

  87. Ageing process: Said increased contemplation of experiences and wisdom stored in the deep recesses of memory provided a measure of compensation for memory and mobility loss in old age

  88. Wish for his 90th birthday: When His Holiness the Dalai Lama was declined a visa to attend his 80th birthday, he said he hoped the Dalai Lama would be able to accept the invitation for his 90th

  89. Heaven: Didn’t take for granted that he’d be accepted into heaven

  90. Never giving up: He told the story of a sleepless devil pleading with St Peter to admit him (the Arch) upstairs because he was extremely troublesome

  91. Rule-from-the-grave: Nelson Mandela said that he had never believed in the concept of people ruling from the grave, but was tempted to believe it with regard to Archbishop Tutu who fulfilled his ambition to serve his people and his country