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LONDON, 20 April 1998, Sapa-AP
Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the Anglican monk who led the British campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, died Monday at age 84.
Huddleston, who lived in Africa for much of his life, died at the Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield, northern England, headquarters of the religious order he joined in the 1930s and where he lived after retirement, his assistant Jill Thompson said.
"He had been feeling somewhat ill for the past couple of days and he died of old age. It was very peaceful," she said.
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a friend for more than 50 years, said Huddleston "made sure that apartheid got on to the world agenda and stayed there."
"If you could say that anybody single-handedly made apartheid a world issue then that person was Trevor Huddleston," said Tutu.
"He laughed like an African, his whole body was involved, not just with his teeth," Tutu added in a BBC radio interview.
Tutu was 8 when he first met Huddleston in a Johannesburg hostel for the blind where his mother worked. He once wrote he remembered his amazement when the tall cleric in flowing cassock doffed his black hat to Mrs. Tutu - a courtesy rarely extended to blacks by whites.
"We just want to thank God," Tutu wrote, "for this wonderful person who made us blacks realise that not all whites were the same."
South Africa's President Nelson Mandela said Monday that Huddleston "forsook all that apartheid South Africa offered the privileged (white) minority. And he did so at great risk to his personal safety and well-being."
Huddleston helped found Britain's Anti-Apartheid Movement in 1959 and led its campaigns for sanctions against the white-led government.
This year he received a knighthood for his work against apartheid.
Born on June 15, 1913, Huddleston was educated at Oxford University and became a monk in 1939. Two years later, he was posted to South Africa, where Afrikaner nationalism was on the rise, to work in the black slums near Johannesburg.
From the beginning he fought to alleviate poverty and railed against laws that made blacks non-citizens in their own land. He fumed as bulldozers sent by the authorities destroyed the pitiful homes of his parishioners - and burned ever after with a desire to end such cruelty.
"There is no time to be lost in breaking the present government I am convinced," he wrote in "Naught For Your Comfort," his 1955 book about his experiences.
"As a monk, (Huddleston) saw himself as a Christian socialist," wrote Anthony Sampson, an observer of South Africa, in London's Observer newspaper in 1988.
"He explained how the church had always taught that when government degenerates into tyranny its laws are no longer binding on its subjects."
Huddleston's support for the black cause made him a lifelong friend of ANC leaders like Mandela and Oliver Tambo.
In 1956, he was recalled by his superiors, who feared the views expressed in his book might get him expelled.
"I did not want to leave because I loved being in Africa, but I had taken a vow of obedience so I had to," he told The Associated Press in 1978. South Africa later barred him.
In 1960 he was appointed Bishop of Masasi in Southern Tanzania as it prepared for independence.
Eight years later he moved to the poor streets of east London when he was appointed Bishop of Stepney, and he worked to protect Indian immigrants from right-wing National Front extremists.
In 1978, he was appointed Bishop of Mauritius and Primate of the Indian Ocean.
On retirement five years later, he devoted himself full time to "the South Africa I love," becoming president of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and chairman of the Defence Aid Fund for South Africa.
Huddleston toured the world, lobbying government leaders and raising funds.
In 1982, he received the United Nations Gold Medal Award for his work.
Black South Africans gave him a tumultuous welcome when he returned to Johannesburg in June 1991 for the first time in 35 years.
Asked by a Guardian interviewer in 1993 if he had expected apartheid to last so long, he replied, "No, but I've always said I wanted to see apartheid dead before I am - so they've got to get a move on."
PRETORIA, 20 April 1998, Sapa
Father Trevor Huddleston was a pillar of wisdom, humility and sacrifice to legions of freedom fighters in the darkest moments of the struggle against apartheid, President Nelson Mandela said on Monday.
Mandela, in a statement from his office, was paying tribute to Huddleston, 84, who died in Mirfield, northern England on Monday.
"It is humbling for an ordinary mortal like myself to express the deep sense of loss one feels at the death of so great and venerable figure as Father Trevor Huddleston," Mandela said.
At a time when identifying with the cause of equality for all South Africans was seen as the height of betrayal by the privileged, Huddleston embraced the downtrodden.
"He forsook all that apartheid South Africa offered the privileged minority. And he did so at great risk to his personal safety and well-being.
"On behalf of the people of South Africa and anti-apartheid campaigners across the world, I convey my deepest condolences to his Church, his friends and his colleagues."
Mandela said Huddleston belonged to that category of men and women who made the world the theatre of their pursuit of freedom and justice.
"He brought hope, sunshine and comfort to the poorest of the poor. He was not only a leader in the fight against oppression. He was also father and mentor to many leaders of the liberation movement, most of whom now occupy leading positions in all spheres of public life in our country.
"His memory will live in the hearts of our people," said Mandela.
Huddleston, an outspoken Anglican priest, led the British campaign to end apartheid in South Africa.
The New York Times, Tuesday 21 April 1998
By ERIC PACE
Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, a British Anglican who spent years fighting apartheid in South Africa and helped make its abuses widely known, died in northern England Monday, the Church of England announced. He was 84.
Reuters reported that he suffered from diabetes.
Though born in a well-to-do section of London, Huddleston followed his priestly vocation to minister to poor blacks in Johannesburg. And that experience helped him to sympathise powerfully with the downtrodden.
Huddleston, as he was called early in his clerical career, raised his voice against the racial policy of what was then called the Union of South Africa, which mandated discrimination against nonwhites, especially Africans.
"I had to declare myself in fully supporting the resistance movement of the African National Congress," he said once in an interview. "I felt as a Christian priest that was what I had to do."
Africans heard his voice and expressed their gratitude. President Nelson Mandela of South Africa said in a statement issued Monday, "Father Huddleston was a pillar of wisdom, humility and sacrifice to the legions of freedom fighters in the darkest moments of the struggle against apartheid."
Huddleston received a knighthood this year for his role in the forefront of anti-apartheid efforts.
During his years, beginning in 1943, as the priest in charge of the Anglican mission at Sophiatown, an African slum in Johannesburg, he contended that segregation was immoral. Later he was recalled to England by his order, the Community of the Resurrection. He thought that at the time of his recall legal steps were being contemplated against him by the South African government.
In 1956 he was banned from South Africa after the white government concluded that his presence was a threat to its system. Four years later race riots broke out in which several hundred people lost their lives.
The year 1956 also saw the publication of Huddleston's book "Naught for Your Comfort," which sharply protested the apartheid system.
The book bore a title derived from these lines by G.K. Chesterton:
"I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher."
Later in the 1950s, the future archbishop was a founder of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. He was joined in that effort by Julius K. Nyerere, who went on to become Tanzania's president.
He ministered to Africa as archbishop of the Indian Ocean from 1978 to 1983, and was concurrently the bishop of Mauritius. He went on to become the Anti- Apartheid Movement's president for a dozen years in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1994, in what was seen as a victory for apartheid's enemies, South Africa held its first elections in which all races were allowed to take part.
It was not until 1993 that South Africa lifted its prohibition on the archbishop's presence, but his influence there was long-lasting. Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, the African ex-head of the Anglican church there, said Monday that he was immensely grieved by the passing of a man whose work had been so inspiring.
In an interview, Tutu said that Huddleston was "one of those white people who enabled us not to feel embittered, so we could look at him and say, 'Not all white people are the same.' "
Tutu also said Monday: "If I had to choose one person who got the anti- apartheid movement onto the world stage, that person would be Archbishop Huddleston without a doubt. The world was a better place for having had Trevor Huddleston."
The South African leaders to whom Huddleston served as mentor and friend included a former president of the African National Congress, Oliver Tambo.
And Mandela, in his statement, underscored Huddleston's courage. "At a time when identifying with the cause of equality for all South Africans was seen as the height of betrayal by the privileged," the president said, he "embraced the downtrodden. He forsook all that apartheid South Africa offered the privileged community. And he did so at great risk."
Over the years, Huddleston's affirmations included contending that his own Anglican Church had not faced the problem of apartheid, which he said was "fairly presented to the conscience of the Christian world."
"It is not that white Christians are bad," he wrote, "It is simply that they fail to see the relevance of their faith to social problems."
He also affirmed his great fondness for Africa. He once told an interviewer: "If Africa takes hold of you, that's it, you've had it. It was the physical demonstrativeness that took me, I think, the warmth - and the gentleness."
The African posts that he held while the South African ban was in force also included serving as bishop of Masasi in Tanzania from 1960 to 1968.
Faraway places were no novelty to the Huddleston family. The archbishop's father was Sir Ernest Huddleston, a captain in the Indian Navy who held important port administration posts.
The son, whose full name was Ernest Trevor Urban Huddleston, attended Lancing, a public school in Sussex, and took second-class honours in history at Christ Church College, Oxford. After completing theological studies at Wells Theological Seminary, he was ordained a priest in 1937.
It was half a century later, in 1990, that Mandela, a former political prisoner of the South African government, arrived in London to thank people around the world for supporting him in the fight to end apartheid. One of the first things he did, on his first visit to Britain since 1962, was to meet with Huddleston.
Then, in 1991, at a time when the ANC had suspended its armed struggle against the South African government and was mounting a struggle of words and demonstrations, that Huddleston was invited to open the first national conference of the ANC in 32 years.
Later, in 1995, he thought of taking up residence once more in South Africa, and he went back. But he returned to Britain not long afterward, saying that from there he could encourage foreign investment in post-apartheid South Africa.
And he let it be known that his final wish was for his ashes to be scattered one day near the church that the young Huddleston had served in Sophiatown.
Information about survivors was not immediately available.
JOHANNESBURG, 20 April 1998, Sapa
The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Rev Njongonkulu Ndungane, on Monday said the death of veteran anti-apartheid activist Father Trevor Huddleston was a great loss to all the people of South Africa.
Huddleston, 84, died in Muirfield, northern England, on Monday after a long illness.
In a statement, the archbishop said the Bishops of the Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa met on Monday evening in Caledon in the Cape to give thanks for Huddleston's ministry in South Africa.
The Bishops gave thanks for Huddleston's steadfast obedience, his compassion for the exploited and his passion for justice, the statement said.
"We will always know him as a symbol of the justice of God and a personification of the sacrificial love which gives life to all people.
"We are grateful to God that Trevor lived to see the new South Africa rise from the horrors of the past - he will be a sign and an inspiration for many generations. We express our sorrow at his death, and pay tribute to the work he did in highlighting the injustices of apartheid," the statement said.
JOHANNESBURG, 21 April 1998, Sapa
The SA Communist Party on Tuesday said the late Archbishop Trevor Huddleston was guided by a strong moral passion and an ability to identify with the struggles of oppressed people across the divides of geography, culture and background.
In a statement paying tribute to Huddleston, 84, who died in Mirfield in northern England on Monday, the SACP said Huddleston was also imbued with a sense of non-sectarianism and a preparedness to work with the widest range of forces against apartheid.
"He is reembered by the SACP in particular for his contribution to building the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, itself a model for what was to become one of the great international social movements of the 20th Century - the world-wide anti-apartheid movement.
"Huddleston was one among many leading religious figures who unmasked the apartheid regime's pretense that it was leading a moral Christian crusade against communism. The SACP is proud to have been in the same trench as comrade Archbishop Trevor Huddleston," the statement said.
PRETORIA, 21 April 1998, Sapa
It was with profound shock that the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference had learnt of the death of Anglican Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the SACBC said on Tuesday.
Huddleston died aged 84 in Mirfield in northern England on Monday.
"We wish to extend our deepest sympathy to the Huddleston family, to the religious community he lived with and to the Anglican Church as a whole," the statement said.
"He delicately and decisively manoeuvred his constituency towards greater co-operation amongst different church and political groups during the liberation struggle in South Africa."
The bishops said Huddleston played an important role between churches, freedom fighters and the previous government of apartheid.
The anti-apartheid movement which he helped found campaigned for boycotts and sanctions against the minority white government and "we thank him for that".
The bishops described Huddleston as a friend to all, a man of God, a committed churchman.
"He will be sadly missed for his profound liberation theological insight. The SACBC offers the Anglican Church its deepest sympathy and the assurance of their prayers."
JOHANNESBURG, 21 April 1998, Sapa
Archbishop Trevor Huddleston was a pillar of the struggle and crucial in bringing about the demise of one of the worst institutionalised systems of hatred the world had ever seen, Cosatu head of communications Nowetu Mpati said on Tuesday.
Tributes were pouring in after the announcement of the death on Monday of anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Trevor Huddleston in Mirfield, Yorkshire.
In a statement Mpati said: "Cosatu joins the rest of the peace loving democrats in mourning the death of legendary Archbishop Trevor Huddlestone.
"Comrade Trevor was the leader of the international anti-apartheid movement after his expulsion from South Africa in 1956.
"Before his expulsion from South Africa he was a champion against forced removals and was awarded the ANC's highest honour, the Isithwalandwe, for his role in fighting the demolition of Sophiatown in 1955.
"All who knew him or knew of him agree that his strength of character and outstanding leadership in the struggle was a gift to those fighting for a better South Africa.
"Cosatu joins the rest of the world in saluting this hero of our struggle and send our heartfelt sympathies to his friends and family, both here and in England where he passed away," Mpati said
The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Ndungane Njongonkulu will preside at a Memorial Eucharist for Archbishop Trevor Huddleston CR on Tuesday, May 5, 1998.
The service will be held at noon in St Mary's Cathedral Johannesburg. Celebrating with Archbishop Ndungane will be the Bishop of Johannesburg, the Right R.T.Revd Duncan Buchanan.
The preacher at the service will be Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, while an oration will be given by President Mandela. Also taking part will be a representative of the Community of the Resurrection.
Archbishop Huddleston died in Mirfield, England, last Monday April 20.
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