South African anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, dubbed the country’s moral compass, died on Sunday at the age of 90, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“The departure of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter in our nation’s farewell to a generation of remarkable South Africans who have left us a free South Africa,” he said in a statement.

He was a persistent campaigner who earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his efforts to end white minority rule in his nation.

Tutu was very vocal, and even after the racist apartheid state fell, he never shied away from exposing South Africa’s failings or injustices.

Tutu created and popularized the phrase “Rainbow Nation” to characterize South Africa after Nelson Mandela was elected as the country’s first black president.