Archbishop Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa. His father was a teacher, and he himself was educated at Johannesburg Bantu High School. After leaving school he trained first as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and in 1954 he graduated from the University of South Africa. After three years as a high school teacher he began to study theology, being ordained as a priest in 1960. The years 1962-66 were devoted to further theological study in England leading up to a Master of Theology. From 1967 to 1972 he taught theology in South Africa before returning to England for three years as the assistant director of a theological institute in London. In 1975 he was appointed Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black to hold that position. From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. Archbishop Tutu is an honorary doctor of a number of leading universities in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

From Nobel Lectures, Peace 1981-1990, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore. Used with permission.