By TEE NGUGI

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu is dead. The meaning of this headline, broadcast around the world following his death on December 26, is simple enough. Yet its import shook humanity’s moral foundations. This is not a hyperbole. Tutu personified our collective conscience. In his tribute, former President Barack Obama referred to him as a “moral compass”. Tutu’s life was a roller-coaster ride of moments of courage, honesty, exhilarating joy, love, profound sorrow, and anguish.

Courage to face the apartheid police state, and to criticise despots around the world, and to support political and social causes before it was fashionable to do so. He was refreshingly honest about his personal life, and his shortcomings, as well as the failings of the ANC government and his people. As chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he sobbed openly in anguish and despair during hearings. He expressed love for his wife without regard to cultural norms. He laughed heartily, thoroughly enjoying his merriment. He had no façade, no self- righteous posturing, no sense of political or cultural expediency. He spoke from his heart without regard to what was politically or socially fashionable. He came to resemble the Dalai Lama in his philosophical outlook, religious tolerance, in his humanism, and in his personal style. No wonder the two became great friends.

Seeing them together, one was struck by the thought that when someone truly believes in the central teachings of their faith —be they Muslim, Christian, Buddhists or others — their humanness shines out of them, and touches , changes , and gives hope to all of us regardless of our faiths.

There is a difference I want to emphasise between the activism of Tutu and that of the so-called radical left. Tutu criticised injustice and wrongdoing wherever it occurred and whomever perpetrated it.

He was a strident critic of the apartheid regime, yet when the ANC came to power, he directed his principled ire against corruption and mis-governance. He criticised Thabo Mbeki for his HIV/Aids polices based on ‘Aids denialism’ which led to loss of thousands of lives. He criticised despots like Mugabe, Abacha and other tyrants in Africa.

This criticism angered African leftist nationalists who at that time were championing Mugabe as the embodiment of the African revolution.

Tutu was an outspoken critic of the treatment of Palestinians by Israelis.

Unlike leftist or nationalist activists, Tutu did not first ask where an injustice was happening or who was perpetrating it before criticising it. He was led by conscience, not by ideological dogma or pan-Africanist nationalism.

Selective activism against injustice does not only leave great swathes of injustice in the world, it encourages them. How does one criticise the killing of George Floyd in America and keep quiet about police killing of 40 Ugandans in one day.

Tutu would have called for racial justice in America and at the same time called for justice in Uganda. That is the hallmark of conscientious activism.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator