there we go! whoopee! the one thing that helps desmond tutu stand out and occupy this unique place in south african history is that he was there at every step of the way, through this country's torturous journey from apartheid to democracy and beyond, with that clear, moral, often angry, sometimes laughing voice. a man defined, above all, by his sense of hope. desmond tutu was born in 1931. he overcame childhood polio and tb. poverty denied him the chance to become a doctor. instead, he was drawn into the anglican church. south africa was now controlled by an increasingly strict system of racial apartheid, of racist laws designed to subjugate the black majority.