South Africa’s Desmond Tutu Dies at 90

South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu makes an address at Westminster Abbey in London during the memorial service for the former South African President Nelson Mandela, on March 3, 2014. (John Stillwell/Pool Photo via AP)

JOHANNESBURG—Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for human rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday. He was 90.

An uncompromising foe of apartheid, Tutu worked tirelessly, though non-violently, for its downfall.

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The buoyant, blunt-spoken clergyman used his pulpit as the first Black bishop of Johannesburg and later Archbishop of Cape Town as well as frequent public demonstrations to galvanize public opinion against racial inequality both at home and globally.

Tutu’s death on Sunday “is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.

“From the pavements of resistance in South Africa to the pulpits of the world’s great cathedrals and places of worship, and the prestigious setting of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, the Arch distinguished himself as a non-sectarian, inclusive champion of universal human rights.”