Desmond Tutu

For most people who encounter him now, Desmond Tutu arrives as a voice on reconciliation — the archbishop who argued that a society could face what had been done to it and still hold together. That reputation rests on a life of activism as much as ministry: he was an Anglican priest in South Africa who spent his career defending human rights, and the two roles were never really separate.

He was born in Klerksdorp on 7 October 1931. His work drew on study and careful argument, and colleagues noted his ability to make difficult matters plain — a skill that mattered as much in public dispute as in the pulpit. He held institutional positions that gave his arguments a platform, and later in life turned towards mentoring others and consolidating what he had learned rather than defending it as doctrine.

He died on 26 December 2021. What survives him is a body of work that audiences in different countries and generations have continued to draw on for practical guidance, and a way of paying attention to conflict and its aftermath that others have extended into their own settings. Reconciliation and human rights remain the shorthand for what he stood for.