Desmond Tutu is a South African Anglican clergyman and theologian known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was the Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black man to hold the position.
Theologically,he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology; politically, he identifies as a socialist. Born to a poor family in Klerksdorp, Tutu is of mixed Xhosa and Motswana heritage. Moving around South Africa as a child, he trained as a teacher and married Nomalizo Leah Tutu, with whom he had several children.
In 1960, he was ordained as a priest and in 1962 moved to the United Kingdom to study undergraduate and master’s degrees in theology at King’s College London. In 1966 he returned to southern Africa, teaching at the Federal Theological Seminary and then the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1972, he returned to London as the Theological Education Fund’s director for Africa, necessitating regular tours of the continent.
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