Many South Africans gathered in front of Saint George’s Cathedral, the parish of ex-Archbishop Desmond Tutu, after the announcement of his death on Sunday at the age of 90.
On their way to the beach or before a traditional barbecue on this southern summer Sunday in Cape Town, moved South Africans stop in front of Saint George’s Cathedral, the parish of the former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the last great figure of the fight against apartheid, died Sunday. “He was so important in the fight against apartheid. For us blacks …”, Brent Goliath, 44, told AFP, before bursting into tears.
Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1984, Bishop Tutu passed away shortly after dawn in a nursing home. Weakened by cancer, he was 90 years old. On all the country’s television channels, images of the little man in the purple robe, dancing alongside the Dalai Lama or, hilariously, in the company of his friend Nelson Mandela, are looping. Holding her granddaughter by the hand, Miriam Mokwadi, 67, walked to Cape Town Cathedral: “It’s the truth, Tutu was a hero. He fought for us. We are free thanks to him. Without him, our country would have been lost “.
News of the death of one considered the conscience of South Africa fell just before mass. The announcement was made during the celebration. Quickly, the police cordoned off the neighborhood. A book of condolences has been placed outside the building, for the final messages to “The Arch” as he is affectionately known in the country. “Sad as it may be, it probably brings some relief to the family as Father Desmond has suffered a lot in recent weeks,” Father Michael Weeder said.
Purple light
A black-and-white photo in which Mr. Tutu appears smiling with his hands clasped has been hung on a fence. Bouquets of flowers began to be hung there by worshipers or passing tourists. “I was born almost at the end of apartheid but my whole family talked about Tutu and it was part of the history program in high school,” said Amanda Xalabile, 30, who stopped on the way to the park, accompanied by her two children. It is in this cathedral that the funeral of Bishop Tutu will take place on Saturday January 1st. The famous Table Mountain, which dominates the city, was illuminated in the evening in purple and is expected to remain so until the funeral.
Hugging each other for a long time, the members of Desmond Tutu’s family gradually gathered in his house in Cape Town, under police surveillance. Behind a security cordon, a woman in shorts and tank top, accompanied by her daughter, holds out a bouquet of flowers. “For the family”, she slips to the police. In Desmond Tutu’s other house in Soweto, the curtains are drawn. In front of this house, a few tens of meters from the famous house – transformed into a museum – of Nelson Mandela, young trendy people come to take selfies.
“We used to see him pass by when he was doing his morning jog, so of course (…) we neighbors are really moved”, remembers Lerato, a little older. “When I had a drink, around here, he was in the middle of everyone. I will not forget this gentleman,” says Samba, of Congolese origin, in French. Desmond Tutu had come to prominence during the worst hours of the racist apartheid regime, which was abolished in 1991. He organized peaceful marches against segregation and pleaded for international sanctions against the white regime in Pretoria. For Stephen Moreo, the Anglican Archbishop of Johannesburg, “his heritage is that of his love for all (…) He always said that God is not the God of Christians, but the God of everyone”.
Any reproduction prohibited