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Desmond Tutu

Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

South Africa · 1931–2021

South African Anglican cleric who became General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches and then Archbishop of Cape Town, and who was a leading non-violent opponent of apartheid. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1995.

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Question What made you decide to stop something you were known for, and how did you know it was time?

I stopped being a teacher when the South African Government introduced a deliberately inferior education for blacks called Bantu education, and I felt I wasn’t ready to collaborate with this apology for an educational system. Our children, the 1976 kids who revolted against apartheid in Soweto, called it “gutter education,” and it was gutter education. I left teaching. Of course, I didn’t have too many option, and mercifully, the Bishop of Johannesburg at that time accepted me for training for the priesthood. So I came to the priesthood, as it were, by default.

Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 12 June 2004 source ↗

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