Desmond Tutu was born on 7 October 1931 in Klerksdorp, South Africa. Both his parents were baptized Christians who taught him to say prayers before he retires (Maluleke, 2015) and had a strong impact on his life. At the time of his birth, South Africa was under the control of colonial Dutch government and only whites and a few blacks in the Cape Province were allowed to vote. Most of the native African people were denied any political or economic right due to the policy of apartheid according to which the white people were placed at the top of a very high totem pole, prioritized over and above all other racial groups. According to Otieno (2020), "the moral reality in which Tutu grew up could only prepare him for a career either tending to the wounds of those in despair or in participating in revolts against the Boers and their policies. Eventually, he chose both" (p.593).

Although Tutu began his long career as a teacher, he was appointed as the first Black Secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) (1978–1985), and then as the first Black Bishop of Johannesburg (1985–1986) in St Mary’s Cathedral, which half of its parishes were exclusively White (Crompton 2007:36–60). In 1986, during the last decade of apartheid, Tutu become the first black Archbishop of Cape Town and bishop of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and assumed leadership roles in the South African Council of Churches. Some White Congregations of the Church of the Province of South Africa threatened to withdraw from that church, because they were not satisfied with the appointment of Tutu as their leader (Pali, 2019).

The presentation aims to analyze the leadership of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a national figure in South Africa, who fought all his life against injustice and called for peaceful solutions to human conflicts. Tutu can be viewed as a compassionate leader who involves taking some form of public action that is intended to ease people’s pain and inspires others to act as well.

As an African with a passion to preserve African traditions of courtesy, Tutu was strongly influenced by the worldview of Ubuntu, which is about humanness, gentleness, hospitality, and putting others before oneself. Based on Tutu's biography, the presentation will emphasize the meanings of compassionate caring in educational leadership including major concepts put forward by Tutu throughout his life which that are very relevant to contemporary educational management: forgiveness and reconciliation as strategies to resolve conflicts and promote social justice in educational institutions.

Tutu teaches us that educational leadership should include a compassionate view of leading that focuses on the human side of the organization (Bauwens et al. 2022) and is very popular in the health sector (Hodges, Paech, and Bennett 2020). In fact, according to Jemal et al. (2023), a compassionate treatment is at the heart of effective health care and compassionate leadership is a critical element in all effective care and medical treatment. Tutu would agree with that, adding that compassion is not limited merely to the health sector. Educational leaders could learn a lot from him.

The biographical approach, the methodology I chose to analyze the leadership of Tutu, is a form of narrative inquiry that communicates meaning from life experiences (Ospina & Dodge, 2005). It seeks to provide answers to questions such as 'whys and hows' and focus on one case, i.e., a leader in action (Lambright & Quinn, 2011). The biographer who narrates the life course of another person may skim to surface to connect the events that occurred during the person's life and trace the cultural, social, political and organizational aspects that molded his/her career development. The biography is usually about a leader whose vision and courage had considerable impact on his/her society/organization (Peeler, 2012). The biographical research enables researchers to explore the lived experiences of leaders and to probe the chronological nature of their experiences and changes over time in the self and representations of the self. It also entails researchers tracing common strategies used by leaders in the past to cope with a wide variety of crisis events as well as exploring the salient role of leaders in directing their societies or organizations to success. When analyzing the leadership of Tutu, I posed several questions to help me focus on the leader and the context in which his leadership took place. These questions are as follow; What was the nature of the situation he or she faced in making a decision? What did the leader do to impact an organization or society, rather than simply being influenced by circumstances? What were the leader's achievements versus failures? How did the personality/traits/experiences of the leader influence the situation in the society/organization? What were the forces shaping the leader's biography and his/her leadership style? How did the leaders apply skills and strategies to their role? How do the roles of the leader's assistants or teams matter? Who were the others with whom the leader consulted? These are only some examples of questions but I am aware that each biography needs particular questions in the process of analysis. I hope, nevertheless, that I present a balanced biography of the leader that is replete with contexts, occurrences, experiences, dilemmas, strategies, successes, failures and so forth.

Tuto's leadership encompassed social harmony, community, humanity, compassion, and forgiveness. Influenced by the African worldview of 'Ubuntu,' Tutu’s moral and theological framework rests on the conjecture that individuals are all inextricably connected in a common web of being and the greatest good has to be social harmony (Riggle, 2007). Accordingly, leaders and teachers should treat each other as partners who have to work together to attain certain goals and, as human, they can overcome their faults only when they are all mutually dependent. In other words, every individual perceives him/herself as a brother or sister to everyone else whose commitment is to care for others and alleviate each one's pain and suffering. Therefore, love, empathy, and compassion, are among the emotions humans are expected to display at each other. Tutu saw Ubuntu in terms of humanness, hospitality, gentleness and putting ourselves on behalf of the other (Tutu, 2010). He was a man of immense moral authority (Rensburg, 2002). A central concept in Ubuntu is humanity that unquestionably configures its moral arc (Otieno, 2020). According to Tutu, our humanity is constructed as connected with others so that we can all be human beings together. Therefore, he believed that Ubuntu is not restricted only to Africans, but also to all humanity (Pali, 2019). He maintained that if one part of the body suffers, then the whole suffers with it. Tutu believed that the vast majority of South Africans should feel bitterness, anger, resentment, and a desire for revenge due to the Apartheid period. However, by displaying a willingness to forgive through the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, the South Africans, according to his standpoint, are paying a high price for the freedom of South Africa (Battle, 2000). In other words, there is no future without forgiveness (Tutu, 2012).

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