A touch of greatness, a generous soul
LUCAS NTYINTYANE pays tribute to Professor Bongani Mayosi, ‘a teacher, friend and father figure who recruited me to my IMPI study. A teacher who taught me what it means to be a human before being a doctor’
THERE is a danger to reducing Professor Bongani Mayosi’s life to a single narrative.
Many are eager to portray him as the face of depression. When they talk of Prof Mayosi, it is all I hear.
Every opinion piece or radio talk on depression in the past week is prefaced with Prof Mayosi.
Suddenly everyone is an expert on what constitutes depression and suicide. Others are offering tips on how to “beat” depression.
I have to ask myself, are they talking about the Bongani Mayosi I know? It cannot be.
Prof Mayosi’s life was more than depression. I can hear him saying “Mfondini, bathini ngam?” (My brother, what are they saying about me?)
To equate Mayosi to only depression is opportunistic and undermines the real fight to remove the stigma around mental illness.
Mayosi was the first to highlight the importance of stress as a risk factor in cardiac diseases. Let us honour this humble hero for enlightening our lives.
The fact that I am writing this opinion piece is thanks to Mayosi. It is the least I can do for a man whose generosity cannot be repaid.
He was generous to a fault. Never too busy to help. He was patient to listen and quick to praise. I have never heard him raise his voice to strengthen his argument.
If you erred, he would call you aside and note your error in such a way that you would not feel humiliated.
I pity those who threw insults at him. I wish they knew how much Mayosi cared about the plight of the students.
His weakness was that he believed in the goodness of humanity and saw the best in all he met.
He never had a bad word to say against his detractors.
He had the courage of conviction. The courage to be oneself, as Paul Tillich would say.
Bongani the conciliatory leader was always ready to listen to others. We all let him down.
It is too late now to call for the commission of inquiry. Mayosi was dying in front of our eyes and we did nothing. UCT and the Black Academic Caucus leaders turned their back on him. They knew he was being insulted but did nothing to protect him. When he wanted their support, did UCT listen?
Did the black leaders came to his aid? Don’t pretend you care now? It is too late. Our collective selfishness took away a national asset.
In a country that is crying out for ethical leadership, Mayosi was the answer.
We looked up to Mayosi as we lost faith in the post-Nelson Mandela political leadership who looted the country and urinated on the Constitution.
In a country bedevilled by race politics, Mayosi saw humans.
His dream was to see blacks and whites working for a common purpose during his tenure at UCT.
Bongani Mayosi was not perfect. Like all of us, he had his flaws.
However, he was the prototype of a servant leader who put others before his own happiness. The meaning of Mayosi’s life was monumental.
When he was appointed to his position of Dean of the Medical School, it was akin to the 2008 election of US president Barack Obama.
The University of Cape Town medical school was like the White House to black medical students. Mayosi changed the status quo.
He was the possibility of a future we dreamed of. In the Western Cape where blackness is marginalised and invisible, Mayosi stood tall for black pride.
Like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, blacks in the Western Cape are invisible men. “No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe, nor am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasm.
“I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fibre and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind.
I am invisible; understand, simply because people refuse to see me… When they approach me, they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination – indeed, everything and anything except me.”
Mayosi’s elevation to the highest office in the medical school was transformative.
It said black lives could be visible.
As Touré, author of Who’s afraid of post-blackness? What it means to be black now, said of Obama’s 2008 election: “To see a black man occupying the world’s most powerful position and become the symbolic face of America, was extraordinary.
“We know the first black president does not represent the end of racism, but is certainly a transformative moment in the history of race in America.”
Mayosi’s appointment changed race politics in medical school. Blackness was no longer a symbol of mediocrity.
One of us was occupying the highest office in the medical school. Not because he was black or affirmative appointment. He was there on merit.
Here was a black leader who is respected worldwide because of his medical contribution. It was a seismic moment.
You felt proud to be black. Mayosi gave the black child confidence and dignity. You could walk in the medical school with an extra spring in your step. Being black did not mean invisible. Black has a name. black is human.
Professor Mayosi was an Internationalist with a pan-Africanist vision. He was passionate about Africa. Africans should find homegrown solutions to their problems. The time for handouts or begging is over.
His IMPI study on TB personified his philosophy. He assembled a brilliant research team, from Salim Yusuf in Canada, Prof Thandi Puone at UWC, Prof Pravin Manga from, Mpiko Ntseke from UCT, to other collaborators from Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Malawi and Sierra Leone.
Today the treatment of TB pericarditis has changed, thanks to their hard work. Many lives have been saved and continue to be saved. This is the vision of Mayosi.
Like Kwame Nkrumah, he wanted Africa to succeed. Research is not about citations or awards; it is to add value to humanity.
He believed in teamwork. No man or woman is an island. You are only good as your team. He surrounded himself with brilliant minds. He nurtured talents and groomed future leaders.
He never cared about titles, positions or fame. He felt embarrassed when people talked about his achievements.
In the era of egomaniac Donald Trump and lies, Mayosi’s humbleness was breath of fresh air. He was a touch of greatness.
Professor E Dimond , Chief Physician of Hospital Hill, Kansas City, Missouri, in his Essays from an unfinished physician, defines greatness as “commitment, kindness, honesty, duty and discipline. Somewhere, somehow, a desire is transferred to do one’s best for fellow-kind, to do it well that you too become a leader…”
This is the Bongani Mayosi I know. So full of life.
At the IMPI celebratory dinner meeting in Johannesburg, he took to the dance floor – to the delight of everyone. He could dance.
I will miss his laughter. he never finished a sentence without laughing. Deep, infectious and genuine. Always using his hands to demonstrate or emphasise a point.
It was a privilege to know him. A perfectionist and a hard taskmaster. He made me rewrite a research paper 10 times before we could submit it for publication.
He would call me every time he saw one of my articles in newspapers.
Our relationship was like Freud and Jung. First, he was my mentor and I was his student. Then he became a lifelong friend and father figure. He was there when my father died.
I cannot believe he is gone. I only cried three times in my life. When they killed Chris Hani, and when my father passed away. Today it is for Bongani Mayosi. May his family find strength in his memory.
When Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India said:
“Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives. And there is darkness everywhere.
“I do not know what to tell you and how to say it… For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light.”
Ntyintyane is a medical doctor in the public sector