Limpopo Leader - Spring 2005 - University of Limpopo

orn in Harare (then Salisbury) in 1951.
‘I always say that I has born in Southern Rhodesia,
started school in the Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland, finished high school in UDI Rhodesia,
went into exile for ten years, and then returned to
work in Zimbabwe.’
Nyazema’s political career began in 1971 when,
as a prefect at school, he was arrested for helping to
organise a march in Salisbury in protest against the
two different teacher salary scales, one for whites and
one for blacks, then in operation. He was stripped of
his prefect status and compelled to hand back the
school tie he had received on becoming a prefect in
the first place. Nevertheless he completed his A levels
and went to the then University of Rhodesia. But after
a year, he left for England. He saw few opportunities
for real study in the isolated UDI country that was
being torn apart by internal politics and finally civil
war. He lived and studied in Liverpool for ten years,
finally gaining his doctorate in pharmacology there.
During his time in England, he served as chairman of
the student Patriotic Front movement on Merseyside.
‘No, I wasn’t a Liverpool supporter. No, not
Everton either. Actually, Notts Forest was my team,’
he admits with the same liveliness that he brings to
everything he does.
On returning to Africa in 1981, he worked for
more than 20 years at the University of Zimbabwe.
He remembers, in 1985, being invited to UCT as a
visiting lecturer and sponsored by a multinational
pharmaceutical company. They flew him business
class. But during the South African leg of the flight,
the steward placed a curtain directly in front of his
seat to protect other business class passengers
(who were all white) from his presence.
He laughs at the memory. ‘But things have changed
now, of course. Why did I come to South Africa?
Maybe because I received only a thousand Zim dollars
as my 20-year-long service award in 2001!’ He
smiles in his lively way. ‘And why did I come specifically
to Limpopo? I could have gone to UCT or Wits,
yes. But I wanted to be in the thick of African realities
while at the same time being at a real university.
Make no mistake, that’s what the University of
Limpopo is: it’s a vibrant African institution with
significant achievements and enormous potential.’
Then Nyazema had to hurry away to catch a
plane to Blantyre in Malawi. He’s on the World Health
Organisation Africa Region Technical Board on antiretrovirals,
and the board was having a meeting there.
Both Nyazema and Ogunbanjo are academics
from other parts of Africa who have found their way
onto the staff of the University of Limpopo. They and
others like them enrich the fabric of both campuses.
They recognise the ‘gateway’ potential of the
combined University. They can also see what is
happening at the moment, and what has happened in
the past, that makes of their University a living example
of the ‘gateway’ theme. Most of the stories that follow
were suggested by these two Limpopo professors.
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