South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the most important former activists to end apartheid, died at the age of 90, at the age of 90.

Tutu - who was famous for his support of the Palestinian cause - doctors discovered in the late nineties that he had prostate cancer and was hospitalized several times in recent years, for treatment of infections related to his treatment of cancer.

Birth and upbringing..study and teaching

October 7, 1931: Desmond Mpelo Toto is born in Clarksdorp, in the Transvaal region of South Africa, where most of the town's population works in the gold mines.

Toto was sick from birth, polio atrophied his right hand, and on one occasion he was taken to hospital with serious burns.

1936: The family moved to the Ching district of Johannesburg, where his father, Zacharias Zelillo Toto, was the principal of the Methodist School, and the family lived in a shed in the schoolyard.

1941: Toto's mother moves to the Witwatersrand to work as a cook at the Eisenzelini Institute for the Blind, west of Johannesburg. Toto follows her into town, where he lives first with an aunt in Roodepoort West before they get a home in town.

1945: Toto entered Johannesburg Bantu High School, where he excelled academically, and joined the school's rugby team there.

1947: Toto fell ill with tuberculosis and was hospitalized in Rietfontein for 18 months, where he spent most of his time reading.

1949: He returned to school and took his national exams at the end of 1950, and successfully passed the second degree.

1951: Toto wanted to study medicine and was accepted to study medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, but the modest possibilities of his family prevented that;

He changed his approach to teaching.

He received a government scholarship to start a course at Pretoria Bantu Normal College - a teacher preparation institute - and graduated as a teacher to practice his father's profession.

1954: He began teaching English at Madiban High School.

1955: Moved to Krugersdorp High School, where he taught English and history.

June 1955: Numalezu married Lia Shinksan (Gloria's sister's friend), an elementary school teacher.

April 1956: Has his first child, Trevor, and then his first daughter, Thandika.

Divinity Journey

1957: He resigned from the teaching position, in protest against the poor training provided by educational institutions for blacks, and began studying theology to become, after 4 years, a chaplain affiliated with the Anglican Church.

Desmond Tutu joined the Church, and was greatly influenced by many of the white clergy in South Africa, in particular that stubborn opponent of apartheid, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston.

1966: He obtained his BA in Theology and Psychology from King's College London, and worked for a period in two churches in southeast England.

After graduating, he taught theology at the University of Fort Hare, which at that time was the only black university in South Africa.

1972: Returned again to Britain, where he became Vice-President of the Religious Education Fund of the World Council of Churches.

1975: Tutu becomes the first black head of the Anglican Church in Johannesburg.

against racial discrimination

1976: Tutu became famous for his loud voice against racism and the world began to recognize his struggle against racial discrimination with the "Soweto events" that erupted after blacks protested against the decision of the Pretoria authorities to compel the use of the "Afrikaans" language in black schools.

Tutu launched a global campaign to demand an economic boycott of the Pretoria regime and the withdrawal of foreign investments to pressure it, and he kept asserting that this would force the regime to reverse its racial discrimination policies.

From 1976 to 1978: He served as bishop in Lesotho, assistant bishop of Johannesburg and head of the diocese in the suburb of Soweto before his appointment as bishop of Johannesburg.

1977: Became General Secretary of the South African Church Council.

1983: When a new constitution was promulgated in South Africa to curb anti-racist organizations and further restrict them, he worked with all parties to form a "National Committee" to fight against constitutional changes.

1984: He won the Nobel Peace Prize, as Tutu was famous for his support of the peaceful struggle, and as much as he opposed the policy of racial discrimination (apartheid) in South Africa, he rejected the retaliatory responses of blacks against this policy.

March 1988: He continued his effective response to the apartheid regime, saying, "We refuse to be treated like a doormat that the government wipes its shoes on."

1989: Tutu warmly welcomed the liberal reforms announced by South African President Frederic Willem de Klerk (August 15, 1989 - May 10, 1994). These reforms included the lifting of the ban on the African National Congress and the release of Nelson Mandela.

April 1989: During a visit to Birmingham, England, he criticized what he called "Britain of two nations" and said British prisons were overcrowded with black inmates.

He announced a ban on the clergy from joining political parties, which was rejected by other churches.

August 1989: He was poisoned with tear gas when police confronted a group leaving a church in a black town near Cape Town.

September 1989: Arrested after refusing to leave a banned demonstration.

1990: He tried to mediate disputes between the African National Congress and the "Inkatha" movement, which was led by Zulu Sheikh Gacha Buthelezi.

South Africa.. Truth and Reconciliation Commission

1995: Tutu chairs the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by the late President Nelson Mandela to collect evidence of inhuman and immoral crimes during the era of apartheid.

August 1998: At the end of the commission's work, Tutu attacked the former white South African leaders, saying that most of them lied to the commission, and although the government accepted the commission's report, many criticized it for not achieving the goals for which it was formed.

Tutu was accused, for example, of being lenient with Mandela's first wife, Winnie, who was facing serious charges, including involvement in murders, but he was always touched by the pain of victims of violence, and was seen crying more than once during the commission's sessions.

2005: Tutu expressed his regret for not prosecuting those who did not ask for pardon, and said that the commission should have tried the perpetrators of the crimes of the era of racial discrimination who did not ask for pardon before the commission, and Tutu considered that the victims did not receive appropriate compensation, especially since those who testified before the commission They gave up their right to seek compensation in court.

Tutu criticized the black majority government that took over after the fall of the apartheid regime, and launched stinging attacks on the ANC government led by President Thabo Mbeki (June 14, 1999 - September 24, 2008).

Tutu claimed that the ANC had not done enough to fight poverty and that a great deal of wealth and political power was concentrated in the hands of a new black political elite.

Toto Jacob Zuma (May 9, 2009 - February 14, 2018), indicted on corruption and sexual assault charges, has urged him to give up his bid for the presidency.

Tutu was very critical of the government of Robert Mugabe (April 18, 1980 - December 31, 1987) in Zimbabwe.

2002: Toto compared Israel's policy towards the Palestinians to the policy of racial discrimination pursued by the Pretoria government against blacks in South Africa. He believes that Israeli violence towards the Palestinian people can only generate more hatred and mutual violence.

February 16, 2004: Tutu calls on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush to apologize for waging an immoral war in Iraq.

June 28, 2007: During a conference in London on the occasion of the inauguration of his institution in the United Kingdom, Tutu questioned the use of so-called "Islamic terrorism" at a time when the term "Christian terrorism" was never mentioned, indicating that this implied that Islam calls for Violence But no one ever spoke of what happened in Northern Ireland as "Christian terrorism".

2010: On his visit to Ireland, he urged Western countries to think seriously about the effects of reducing foreign aid in the wake of the economic crisis that was ravaging the world at the time.

April 2013: Won the prestigious Templeton Prize, an award that honors living people "who have made a significant contribution to affirming the spiritual dimensions of life."

July 2014: He declared his support for the principle of assisted suicide, saying that “life should not be preserved at any cost.” He said - in an opinion that disagreed with many church leaders - that “humans have the right to choose death.”

August 27, 2014: Tutu called on the Dutch "ABP" fund - the third largest pension fund in the world - to deal a strong and non-violent blow to the peace of the Middle East by liquidating its investments in 3 Israeli banks.

The fund has about 3 million members in the Netherlands, and its investments amounted to 309 billion euros ($408 billion) around the world at the end of 2013, including holdings with a total value of about 51 million euros ($67 million) in the three Israeli banks (Hapoalim, Leumi and Mizrahi Tefahot).

January 1, 2021: He wrote an article in the British newspaper "The Guardian" in which he called on the administration of US President-elect Joe Biden to stop covering up Israel's nuclear weapons, and to stop pumping huge funds to it.

Tutu said that the cover-up must be stopped along with stopping the granting of huge sums to help a country with repressive policies towards the Palestinians, "this farce must end," and the US government must abide by its laws and cut off funding to Israel.