Remembering the contributions of an unsung hero to the disbandment of the apartheid regime in SA was the order of the day as one theologian recently charted the historical path of another.
After learning of the death of Mongameli Mabona, who was laid to rest in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Father Ludwe Jayiya put out an ode to the Qombolo-born political refugee at the Mater Dei Catholic Church in Newton Park.
Mabona, 93, died of kidney failure on September 11.
The eminent former Roman Catholic priest, later turned academic, went into exile in the 1970s, living in England before moving to Switzerland, where he settled and started a family.
“He is one of the people who contributed to our struggle,” Jayiya said.
“He, however, is not acknowledged.
“[Instead] he is a man who has been forgotten in our country.
“His work contributing to the pool of knowledge and what he did for his [home] country should be shared.”
Jayiya, following in the footsteps of a man he regarded as his mentor, was ordained as a priest of the Catholic Church in 2006.
Inspired by the stories he’d heard, the then newly ordained minister travelled to Rome before visiting Lucerne to meet his idol for the first time.
It was on this trip, 16 years ago, that Jayiya knew his vocation — at the time a far cry from the more than five decades since Mabona had donned the garb of the priesthood — would one day come full circle.
“One thing I noticed when I met him was that he was a humble man who was interested in his culture,” Jayiya said.
“Immediately after we met, we started speaking isiXhosa.
“He didn’t mix English with isiXhosa, but spoke [the language] fluently as if he’d left yesterday.”
He also learnt about Mabona’s life in exile after Mabona had forged links with Steve Biko, Barney Pityana and others heavily involved in SA’s struggle for political freedom.
Biko and Pityana consulted with him during the formation of the SA Student Organisation (Saso).
Mabona’s son, Sipho, 42, who survives him alongside another son, Themba, 44, daughter Nomsa, 40, and wife Martha — a Swedish citizen whom he met while overseas — fondly recalled his father.
“My dad was very charismatic and could light up every room he stepped into with his sheer presence,” Sipho said.
“His love for his home country was important to him and because of that he became an anthropologist.
“He wanted to understand his culture better.
“I think he was a hard worker and I’ve been fortunate to get that from him.”
Mabona’s reasons for walking away from the priesthood are believed to have sprung from a sour experience with the church in England.
“He didn’t like to talk much about it, but it involved betrayal,” Jayiya said.
One of the few theologians to obtain a doctorate in canon (ecclesiastical) law, he had set up home in England after escaping from SA.
This was, in part, due to harassment by the apartheid police.
Later, while living in the UK, a steadfast Mabona sought assistance from the church in a bid to gain refugee status.
“He was told to flee to Israel, but he couldn’t because he faced the prospect of arrest,” Jayiya said.
According to Jayiya, the move by the church to reject Mabona’s pleas was influenced by racial tensions that had permeated the denomination at the time.
In the end, Mabona obtained his second doctorate from the University of Bern, allowing him to make contributions to the study of African philosophy, black theology and anthropology in his later life.
“And for this he ought to be celebrated,” Jayiya said.
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