Bongani Mayosi Memorial Lecture: ‘We will not forget’

“When a university names a lecture, or when the community of the university names a lecture, they say very specifically: ‘This name we choose not to forget; this name and the extent to which this name forms a part of who we are becoming as a university, we will not forget forever.”

These were the opening remarks the dean of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) Professor Lionel Green-Thompson shared with a packed audience during the 6th annual Bongani Mayosi Memorial Lecture.

The public lecture was hosted by the FHS in partnership with the Bongani Mayosi Foundation on Friday, 31 January, three days after what would’ve been his 58th birthday. The event celebrates the legacy of Professor Mayosi, who was the dean of the FHS at the time of his passing in July 2018. He was described as a one-of-a-kind scholar and a man of both academic excellence as reflected and achieved through his science, as well as communal excellence achieved through the people he grew and touched throughout his life.

“And so, in 50 years’ time when a few of us may no longer be here, the university will gather in this form to say: we remember what they told us about this man. The thread that binds all of these [memorial lectures] together in the life of a university says: ‘We are a university because of the stories people who travel through us have’. And I think this story, the story of Bongani Mayosi, is by far one of the better stories in our legacy,” Professor Green-Thompson said.

Several speakers, including UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela, joined Green-Thompson at the podium to pay tribute to Mayosi. The evening’s keynote speaker was Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, who holds the research chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma at the South African National Research Foundation (NRF), and the director of the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and Reparative Quest at Stellenbosch University.

A revered leader

Addressing the audience by video teleconference, Professor Moshabela said the lecture provides an opportune moment to reflect on Mayosi’s legacy and his profound impact on the university, the field of health sciences and, most importantly, on the lives of all those who had the privilege of encountering and knowing him personally.

“Professor Mayosi was not only a distinguished academic, a leading cardiologist and a globally respected leader.”

“Professor Mayosi was not only a distinguished academic, a leading cardiologist and a globally respected scholar – but also a man of great compassion, humility and vision. His passing left an indelible void in the heart of this institution; a void that many at UCT have carried in their hearts ever since,” Moshabela said.

In the years following his passing, Moshabela said, the institution has learned valuable lessons. He said the university community has come to understand the importance of caring for each other, not just as scholars or staff members, but as human beings.

Further, he said, Mayosi’s passing has underscored the need to understand the importance of mental health challenges and to create an environment for meaningful and respectful conversations, despite differences in backgrounds, beliefs and viewpoints. In the aftermath of Mayosi’s death, Moshabela said the university continues to place greater emphasis on the well-being of staff and students, and the institution is making significant strides with creating support systems for mental health challenges by putting in place additional counselling resources, mental health education and fostering a culture that encourages open conversations on the challenges that everyone faces.

“As we reflect on his legacy, we are also reminded of his passion for advancing healthcare in Africa. [As UCT] we are committed to ensuring that his vision for a healthier, more equitable society remains at the forefront of our research, our teaching and community engagement,” he said.

A reminder

When Professor Mpiko Ntsekhe, UCT’s chair of cardiology and the head of the cardiac clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital, introduced Professor Gobodo-Madikizela, he said the foundation organising committee only selects keynote speakers who embody many, if not all, of the values and attributes that defined Mayosi and gave his life purpose.

Additionally, Professor Ntsekhe said, the speaker must inspire the audience and demonstrate commitment and dedication to uplifting the lives and livelihoods of the people of Africa broadly and South Africa specifically. Gobodo-Madikizela ticked these boxes. And her lecture was titled “Ukuba Ngumntu: Love, compassion and solidarity”.

“In celebrating and remembering the legacy of Bongani, I thought that in recognising someone’s legacy, we must also acknowledge the tragic circumstances of his passing and the wounds that remain deeply felt, not only within UCT, but across the broader community,” she said. “His life and his loss remind us of the difficult truths that emerge in social justice struggles. And that even movements committed to liberation can become entangled in their own contradictions.”

The act of remembrance

Gobodo-Madikizela proceeded to ask the audience an important question: “How do we hold the complexity of honouring Professor Mayosi’s legacy, celebrating the excellence that has inspired so many of us gathered here tonight and countless others who continue to aspire to it while also making space for the difficult truths surrounding his passing?”

“It is in this act of remembrance that we may awaken to the possibility of reclaiming our capacity to love [and for] compassion and solidarity.”

She said it’s not only Mayosi’s brilliance and scholarly excellence that must be remembered, but also the circumstances that led to his death. Therefore, she recommended that the memory of these circumstances be confronted, not to “awaken the sleeping dogs of shame and guilt” because it would offer no reparative paths forward and no sense of hope. Instead, what’s important is to remember Mayosi as a living presence and by doing so, it will allow his “immeasurable” spirit of humanness to summons everyone to become better versions of themselves.

“It is in this act of remembrance that we may awaken to the possibility of reclaiming our capacity to love, [and for] compassion and solidarity. In other words, for a deeper moral attentiveness to one another. Bongani’s life offers us a template on how to become ethical subjects,” she said.

Lift as you rise

She said his intellectual brilliance and his deep humanity were not separate qualities but inextricably intertwined into the fabric of his extraordinary humanity. So, his legacy is not only in what he achieved as a world-renowned researcher, but also in the manner in which he carried others with him.

“He insisted that excellence must never be an individual pursuit but a collective endeavour. Lift as you rise, a phrase that has come to be known as one of the “Bonganism”. This was not merely a call [for] mentorship or professional generosity, it was an expression of an ethical imperative – a love of humanity made visible in action,” she said.

What this also means, Gobodo-Madikizela said, is that everyone’s achievements and their success stories are meaningless if they are not connected to uplifting others.

“In other words, according to Bongani, to rise alone without creating the conditions for others to rise, to elevate oneself while leaving others behind is a hollow sense of achievement,” she said.

“We have encountered many instances in our institutions where people are given the power to act, [yet] do not lift others [as they] rise. Instead, they stamp on them.”

Turn to hope

She told the audience that if things have been done and they can’t be undone then all that is left is to turn to hope.

“We must first wish for the transformation of relationship still shaped by historical divisions [and] hope that Professor Mayosi’s story will inspire us to rethink [and] reground ourselves in the meaning of humanness.”

“Not hope that seeks to forge ahead while erasing historical memory. But a hope rooted in the possibility of transcending history for the sake of transformation; a hope that looks into the past while searching for a different future; a hope that fears suspicion and resentment might give way to a deeper concern for the human dignity of others,” Gobodo-Madikizela said.

But to achieve this, she said, there must be a willingness to change.

“We must first wish for the transformation of relationships still shaped by historical divisions, [and] hope that Professor Mayosi’s story will inspire us to rethink [and] reground ourselves in the meaning of humanness.”

During the final leg of the programme, the foundation also named the recipients of the Bongani Mayosi National Medical Students Academic Prize.