Bishop Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal. 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.
What was Desmond Tutu’s first job?
In 1978, Desmond Tutu earned his first major and high-profile job as the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and became a leading spokesperson for the rights of Black South Africans.
During the 1980s he played an unrivalled role in drawing national and international attention to the iniquities of apartheid.
The award of the 1984 Nobel Prize for Peace to Tutu sent a significant message to South African Pres. P.W. Botha’s administration.
In 1985, at the height of the township rebellions in South Africa, Tutu was installed as Johannesburg’s first Black Anglican bishop, and in 1986 he was elected the first Black Archbishop of Cape Town.
