Apartheid (Policy)
Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege
Mr. Musk’s father, Errol Musk, said in an interview with The New York Times that Elon, his brother and sister were aware from a young age that there was something wrong with the apartheid system. Errol, who was elected to the Pretoria City Council in 1972, said they would ask him about the laws prohibiting […]
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With a Simple Funeral, South Africa Bids Farewell to Desmond Tutu
CAPE TOWN — In an almost empty cathedral, with an unvarnished, rope-handled coffin placed before the altar, South Africa said farewell on Saturday to Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu with the simplicity that he had planned. Archbishop Tutu’s death last Sunday at age 90 was followed by a week of mourning, as the world remembered his […]
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In Remembering Tutu, South Africa Reckons With Lasting Challenges
JOHANNESBURG — In a requiem Mass that interwove several southern African languages, in the style of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s own preaching, parishioners at his former church in Johannesburg bade farewell this week to the activist priest who took on apartheid with a message of peace and forgiveness. The service, at St. Mary’s Cathedral on Thursday, […]
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South Africa Begins a Week of Mourning for Desmond Tutu
CAPE TOWN — The bells of St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town rang out on Monday as South Africans began a week of mourning for Desmond M. Tutu, the first Black archbishop of Cape Town, who died on Sunday at 90. The cleric was one of the most powerful voices in the anti-apartheid movement, and […]
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Even in Retirement, Desmond Tutu Remained South Africa’s Moral Compass
Long after he led the nonviolent struggle against apartheid, Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, who died Sunday at 90, continued to serve as South Africa’s moral compass, even if it meant criticizing two institutions central to his life: his church and the former liberation movement. Though he formally retired from public life in 2010 — promising […]
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The Time Archbishop Tutu Was Searched at the Airport
Alan Cowell was the South Africa bureau chief for The New York Times from 1983 to 1987, when the apartheid government expelled him from the country. At Johannesburg’s main airport, around 400 people were preparing to board flights for Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. Nearly all of them filed past the security scanners without incident […]
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Desmond Tutu, Whose Voice Helped Slay Apartheid, Dies at 90
His words seemed prophetic when, in 2016, an alliance of religious leaders in South Africa joined other critics in urging Mr. Zuma to quit. In early 2018, Mr. Zuma was ousted after a power struggle with his deputy, Mr. Ramaphosa, who took over the presidency in February of that year. By then, Archbishop Tutu had […]
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