*The late Desmond Tutu will undergo aquamation instead of cremation following his death late last month.
As reported by The Blast, his body will undergo aquamation, an environmentally friendly method of cremation that uses water instead of fire.
Here’s more from the outlet:
Aquamation is also known under its official name, “alkaline hydrolisis.” During this process, a deceased body is submerged in a mixture of water and a strong alkali in a pressurized cylinder for about three to four hours. During this process, the cylinder is heated to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The process causes skins, organs, and hair to liquefy until only the bones are left. These bones are then dried and crushed into a white powder. The remains are then placed in an urn, which can be given to relatives.
We reported earlier that the human rights activist of South Africa passed away on December 26 at the age of 90. Desmond Tutu was the first Black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town.
READ MORE: Desmond Tutu: Anti-Apartheid Leader Has Died At 90 – Obama & World Leaders Offer Tributes | VIDEO
“The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.
Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work towards ending apartheid.
Ramaphosa said Tutu was a “patriot without equal.”
“A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity, and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice, and violence under apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people around the world,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.
The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said, “South Africa and the world have lost one of the great spirits and moral giants of our age.”
“Tutu was a living embodiment of faith in action, speaking boldly against racism, injustice, corruption, and oppression, not just in apartheid South Africa but wherever in the world he saw wrongdoing, especially when it impacted the most vulnerable and voiceless in society,” the Foundation said in a statement.
Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s, Reuters reported. He had been hospitalized for infections tied to his cancer diagnosis in recent years the outlet reported.
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