This archive report was first published on 30 December 2021.
On December 30, 2021, a sea of people of all ages and races lined up outside St George's Cathedral in Cape Town to bid farewell to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a charismatic leader who had spent his life fighting for equality and justice in South Africa.
Among those waiting in line was 65-year-old Liz Cowan, a white social worker who had grown up in apartheid South Africa being told that Tutu was a dangerous man. However, as she stood in the queue, she recalled how she had come to realize that Tutu was a good guy, and she was eager to pay her respects to the man who had played a significant role in shaping her country's history.
Young and old South Africans came in numbers, patiently waiting to be ushered into the cathedral to bid farewell to the globally revered icon as he lay in his simple pinewood coffin. One of the youngest in line was likely five-month-old Likhanye Mbikwana, who sucked on a dummy as his mother held him in her arms swaddled in a blanket.
As the hearse arrived, the sun came out briefly, but it later started to drizzle. The queue outside the cathedral was truly representative of a country that Tutu had dubbed 'the Rainbow Nation'. The man many affectionately dubbed the 'Arch' had specifically requested no shows of 'ostentatiousness', and his modest wooden coffin, topped only with a simple bunch of white carnations, was carried into the cathedral at the foot of Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain.
Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, robed in purple, waved a silver thurible of burning incense while priests recited a prayer. The coffin was placed near the altar, where white candles and delicate stained-glass windows threw light onto a crucifix of Jesus on the cross.
