Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Anglican archbishop whose fearless calls for racial justice helped crush South Africa's brutal apartheid regime, died Sunday in Cape Town. He was 90.
Tutu resolutely held firm to his nonviolent approach despite bloody attacks committed against the Black majority population as the white government clung to power in the 1970s and 1980s. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 "as a unifying leader figure in the nonviolent campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid" in his country.
Ten years later, South Africa conducted its first democratic elections. Tutu celebrated the country’s multi-racial society, calling it a “rainbow nation" – and he warned that "yesterday's oppressed can quite easily become today's oppressors."
Tutu also campaigned for LGBT rights and same-sex marriage, saying “I would not worship a God who is homophobic” in 2013.
South Africa's new leader, Nelson Mandela, named Tutu to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel charged with investigating human rights abuses committed by pro and anti-apartheid groups. A primary goal was to promote reconciliation and forgiveness among perpetrators and victims of apartheid.
"Without forgiveness there is no future," Tutu said.
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Tutu was the first black bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 before becoming the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 until 1996. He was diagnosed with prostate in 1997 and had been hospitalized several times in recent years. He and his wife, Leah, lived in a retirement community outside Cape Town.
"Desmond Tutu was a patriot without equal, a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead," President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement announcing Tutu's passing.
Ramaphosa hailed Tutu as a "non-sectarian, inclusive champion" of human rights for all.
The U.S. embassy in South Africa issued a statement extending condolences to Tutu's family. The statement lauded Tutu as "a man who spent his life fearlessly speaking truth to power," describing him as the "conscience of his generation."
Former President Bill Clinton, who was in office in 1994, issued a statement Sunday remembering Tutu for his "brilliance and eloquence, steady determination and good humor, and an unshakeable faith in the inherent decency of all people."
Former President Barack Obama also noted Tutu's passing, calling him a "mentor, a friend, and a moral compass."
"A universal spirit, Archbishop Tutu was grounded in the struggle for liberation and justice in his own country, but also concerned with injustice everywhere," Obama said in a statement.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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