(30 Jul 1998) Farsi/Nat
The ashes of anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Trevor Huddleston were taken to South Africa on Thursday.
The activist began campaigning for racial equality in the region after the apartheid regime came to power in 1948.
Foreign minister Alfred Nzo carried the ashes back with him after attending a memorial service for Huddleston at Westminster Abbey in London on Wednesday.
Huddleston had asked for his ashes to be interred in the church where he served more than 40 years ago.
It was a king's reception awaiting this flight's arrival at Johannesburg International Airport.
While the man being honoured was not royalty, he holds a special place in the memories of black South Africans.
Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, who passed away three months ago, had requested that his ashes be laid to rest in the country where he worked to end apartheid.
Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo brought the ashes back to South Africa after a thanksgiving service on Wednesday in London.
While an all-black group of soldiers stood at attention, Nzo passed the casket containing Huddleston's ashes to South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki.
The procession was especially poignant, as the main officials involved in the ceremony have all benefited from Huddleston's life work.
The solemn ceremony was punctuated by the notes of "The Last Post" as the casket was placed in a hearse and driven to Sophiatown.
Huddleston is best remembered for his stand against the removal of black people from Sophiatown under the apartheid law of separate racial residential areas.
The inhabitants of Sophiatown, some of whom belonged to Huddleston's parish at the Christ The King church, were moved to an open piece of land to the west of Johannesburg.
The area later became Soweto.
Huddleston also opposed the apartheid-created system of inferior education for blacks.
The 1984 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was greatly influenced by Huddleston.
Tutu gave his blessing at the ceremony.
Aside from his political work, Huddleston is also noted as a patron of world-renowned South African trumpeter, Hugh Masekela.
Masekela launched his musical career after Huddleston persuaded Louis Armstrong to give him a trumpet.
South African trumpet player Johnny Mekwe honoured Huddleston with a few notes during the memorial.
Deputy President Mbeki made it clear that Huddleston would always be revered in South Africa.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"And so this great giant among our people. This South African patriot came back today."
SUPER CAPTION: Thabo Mbeki, Deputy President of South Africa
Huddleston headed the Sophiatown and Orlando Anglican Mission near Johannesburg in the 1940s and 50s.
His outspoken opposition to the racial policies of the government of the time led to his expulsion in 1956.
Huddleston returned to South Africa in 1995 to pass his final years in the country, but he left a few months later, saying he could do more good in Britain by trying to persuade people to invest in the country.
Born in England, the Archbishop obtained South African citizenship and voted in the 1948 general election to try to stop the National Party coming to power.
When it did, Huddleston lost no time or effort in seeking to undermine the apartheid system it erected.
His internationally best-selling book "Naught for Comfort," published in 1956, shortly after he had been withdrawn from the country, opened the eyes of many to its effects.
The uncompromising work compared apartheid to the racialism of Nazi Germany and to slavery.
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Негізгі бет SOUTH AFRICA: ASHES OF TREVOR HUDDLESTON CARRIED TO SOUTH AFRICA
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