About Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Laureate, is one of the greatest living moral icons of our time who was a key role player in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
About Desmond Tutu
About Desmond and Leah Tutu
20:09pm Saturday 4 February
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The 1980s
Desmond Tutu continued to speak out against the injustice of Apartheid and in 1984 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, the first South African to receive the accolade since Albert Luthuli in 1961.
In 1985, he was appointed the Bishop of Johannesburg and a year later became the first black cleric to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa when he was named Archbishop of Cape Town. From 1987 to 1997 he served as president of the All Africa Conference of Churches.
Archbishop Tutu urged foreign disinvestment in South Africa as a way to pressurise the government to dismantle Apartheid, and was the focus of harassment by the security police as a result.
Like murdered activist Steve Biko, he also urged civil disobedience. It led to events such as the "purple rain" protest in Cape Town in 1989, where protesters were sprayed with purple dye to identify them to the police for arrest later. 
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