Is the rest of the world mourning Tutu’s death more than South Africans?

The social media wake after the death of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has evoked mixed reactions across the internet.

While celebrities, billionaires and former world leaders all weighed in on the conversation – posting pictures, memories and extolling Tutu’s virtues – it seems that a few rungs lower down the food chain, the reaction was mixed.

Twitter also had everyone who had ever met Tutu haul out past photo opportunities, memorialising South Africa’s last living Nobel Peace Prize winner more as a commodity than celebrating his legacy.

Social media analyst and netnographer Carmen Murray said while there had been an outpouring of sentiment about his death, she expected local content to be trending as opposed to international condolences.

“Compared to what has been said on the global stage, South Africans have been curiously quiet, and also not as complimentary as I would have thought,” she said.

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Murray said there seemed to be a number of people who were opposed to Tutu’s views and his post-apartheid activities.

Virgin founder Richard Branson tweeted that the world had lost a giant and a brave leader while former US president Barack Obama called Tutu a friend and moral compass, a universal spirit who was grounded in his struggle for justice and liberation, not just for his own people but for people around the world.

This is in stark contrast to some of the local comments that Tutu’s death has solicited. Comments included criticism about his support for Palestine while others claimed that while he was an ardent opponent against apartheid, he was now celebrated by its very perpetrators.

“If you want to celebrate Desmond Tutu then do it without selling him to us,” tweeted DJ Maple Loops, who also wrote that “we know the person he was and we shall not miss him”.

Murray expects a much larger local tide of social media comments and remembrance as Tutu’s funeral approaches.

“Desmond Tutu’s death is a huge loss for the continent and while only a fraction of the population has access to social media, we could expect a groundswell of conversation as the week winds into Saturday’s funeral.”

Yet, she added, it was disappointing that world leaders and other countries had more to say than South Africa on the first day after his death. On Monday the bulk of the conversation is emanating from the United States, Canada, Australia and Brazil, she said.

“But this is a global topic of conversation, as the Arch’s reach and impact stretched well beyond our borders. But he is a national hero, after all.”

Murray expects that most conversation will remain political given Tutu’s role in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, before that his anti-apartheid campaigning and later his views on Palestine and China-occupied Tibet.

“He is also one of the last prominent figures in the transformation of South Africa, Madiba and FW de Klerk have already crossed over. There are only less than a handful of role players remaining that played an authentic role in the dismantling of apartheid and a new socio-political construct,” she said.

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