Cosmas Desmond

Cosmas Desmond (19 November 1935 – 31 March 2012) was a Catholic priest, an activist and an author who lived in England and South Africa. He is particularly well known for his opposition to forced removals in South Africa under the system of apartheid.

Family

Born Patrick Anthony Desmond, he was the seventh of eleven children to a family of Irish Catholics in London's East End. His father worked as a fumigator. In its preface, British ambassador Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon described it as "an account of callous contempt for human suffering, the ugliness of systematic cruelty, and the self-righteousness of the oppressor" and a book that could change the course of history. The book triggered a wave of international attention to forced removals, including a documentary film titled Last Grave in Dimbaza. After eighteen months, he was fired in a "power struggle" between volunteers and staff. He returned to South African in 1991 and in 1994 stood for parliament as a Pan Africanist Congress candidate, but was not elected.

Return to South Africa

After the end of apartheid, Desmond continued to advocate for the welfare of the poor, arguing that apartheid had not truly ended but had "a makeover and bought some new clothes". He felt that the leaders of post-apartheid South Africa had betrayed the trust of the anti-apartheid movement, particularly by failing to redistribute land on a large scale. Late in life, he headed the human rights branch of the NGO Children First, editing the organization's journal.

In 2012, he died of Alzheimer's complications in Durban.