Writer: Dr. Tshepo Moloi | Photograph: Supplied
Rest in Peace (RIP) Prof. Noel Chabani Manganyi (1940-2024). The broad media coverage, included in various speeches at Manganyi’s memorial service and at his funeral guided this article. Observably the master of ceremony (MC) at Prof. Manganyi’s memorial service on 6th November, at Bryanston Methodist Church was Prof.Tinyiko Maluleka, the Tshwane University of Technology’s (TUT) Principal and Vice-Chancellor. The latter’s bond with Prof. Manganyi blossomed after he was appointed as the Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow at University of Pretoria’s (UP) Centre for Advancement of Scholarship (CAS), while Prof. Manganyi was a board member of CAS. Black Consciousness (BC) stalwart, Prof. Barney Pityana, the former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of (UNISA) from 2001-2010, submitted his collegial tribute in the booklet, circulated, as part of Prof. Manganyi’s funeral programme on the 8th of November 2024 held at St. Michael’s Anglican Church, also located in Bryanston. UP’s former interim Vice-Chancellor Prof. Themba Mosia, aptly featured amongst the guest speakers, at the funeral. It was echoed at the memorial service and at the funeral that Prof. Manganyi died, after a lengthy illness that emerged from a form of dementia, on 31st October 2024. This article ought to be read as a pithy entry, in anticipation of my imminent chapter, about Prof. Manganyi, to be focused on his downplayed discourse, as Prof. Es’kia Mphahlele’s (1919-2008) second biographer. Mphahlele’s first biographer, was Yugoslavian born South African critic, Dr. Ursula Barnett (1925-2016). Her book was titled’ Ezekiel Mphahlele’, in 1976, the year Manganyi first met her.
On the personal front, I got wind of the tragic news about the demise of Prof. Manganyi, while I was pre-occupied with two isolated endeavors, that were both somehow linked with him. The first of the two involved, last-minute preparations for the centenary anniversary of my alma mater, which was the first boys school in Johannesburg. The latter was initially briefly named Sacred Heart School however the public would recall it by its second long-lasting name, Marist Brothers College, which dates back to 1889 at Koch Street. After relocating to Eckstein Street, in Observatory in 1924, the aforesaid was renamed Sacred Heart College (SHC) in 1980. Notably Prof. Manganyi’s historic link with SHC, was as a parent of his eldest daughter Tintswalo and her sibling Nkensani Manganyi (fondly popular as the founding owner of ‘Stoned Cherrie’ fashion brand). Both Prof. Manganyi’s daughters, were enrolled at SHC in 1983. Tintswalo matriculated in 1985 and Nkensani in 1991. As part of the SHC alumni, the Manganyi family were part of the legion of families, invited to celebrate SHC’s centenary milestone, on a nostalgic, November 30th 2024. The second activity involved preparations for my 9th public lecture titled ‘Studying Zeke’s Ideology of African Humanism as a Possible Contribution towards the discipline of African Philosophy’, hosted at Funda Community College, in Diepkloof Soweto on 21st November 2024. As part of a total of ten lectures, commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Funda Community College (1984-2024), my lecture 2 was entitled ‘Es’kia Mphahlele’s Life Story: Narratives led by Ursula Barnett and Chabani Manganyi’ presented on the 19th of April 2024. In the latter lecture I contextualized both Dr. Barnett and Prof. Manganyi ‘s respective biographies, of Prof Mphahlele. Dr. Barnett’s biographical focus towards Prof. Mphahlele, relied upon a literary critic method whereas Prof. Manganyi’s biographical approach to Prof. Mphahlele, used the Life-story approach.
Prof. Manganyi’s profile on the website of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), shares his stellar record, as part of activist black South African intellectuals and plenipotentiaries, whom on the strength of his academic training as a psychologist, excelled in his service to help advance the South African Education sector. Since my interest in Prof. Manganyi’s oeuvre is on his arguably less known biographical texts beyond his seminal ‘Being-Black in the World (1973) as echoed in most tributes, sparse reference has been made to Prof. Manganyi’s biographies on Prof. Mphahlele. The latter namely refers to ‘Exiles and Homecoming: A Biography of Es’kia Mphahlele (1984)’, ‘Bury Me at the Marketplace: Selected Letters of Es’kia Mphahlele 1943-1980 (1984)’ and an updated version of the latter text which Prof. Manganyi co-edited with Prof. David Attwell (as Chair of Modern Literature at the University of York in England) published in 2010.
After reading the sample of tributes paying homage to Prof. Manganyi. throughout the first week of November 2024, a worrisome observation of the majority of the tributes limitedly referred to Manganyi’s critical contribution, as a biographer-historian, this recurrence indeed troubled me. To support my aforementioned concern, lets paraphrase contemporary black female psychology lecturer Dr. Mpho Mathebula, from University of Witwatersrand (WITS) from her online article www.theconversation.com/being-black-in-the-world-a-tribute-to-pioneering-south-african-psychologist-chabani-manganyi (published on 8th November 2024). According to her, Prof. Manganyi’s foremost significance was foremostly becoming South Africa’s “First registered black clinical psychologist trained during Apartheid South Africa…intellectual biographer” (Mathebula, 2024). Although the latter cannot be criticized for misrepresenting facts, my concern from such a submission is the fleeting reference to Prof. Manganyi ‘as a biographer’, which arguably robs readers of details, which could have been provided to elaborate, about Prof. Manganyi as a biographer. My greater worry however is that Dr. Mathebula’s homage, was preceeded by sources that similarly obfuscate, their reference to Prof. Manganyi as a biographer. Attention to a sample of other sources, ranging from media statements to other individual articles, arguably ought to illustrate my point. Amongst the initial media statements both published on the 5th of November included Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Prof. Blade Nzimande www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/condolences-prof-noel-chabani-manganyi (Nov 5 2024), Wits media statement www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/our-people/2024/tribute-to-prof-chabani-manganyi.html. Black Consciousness (BC) stalwarts Prof. Ranwedzi Nengwekhulu (tribute article in City Press, 10 November 2024 on page 15) and Prof. Barney Pityana ( tribute in the Obituary, 8th November 2024 entitled ‘The Tsonga nation has gifted South Africa with some of the most revolutionary intellectual minds that this country has ever known’. The following fleeting remarks are notable examples published on November 6th 2024, “In later years he published a number of biographies including studies of the painter Gerard Sekoto” www.up.ac.za/news/post_3273744-in-memoriam-professor-noel-chabani-manganyi, and being “A prolific author, Prof. Manganyi’s works-biographies, memoirs, and analyses-stand as pillars in South African literature and psychology” www.psyssa.com/in-memoriam-professor-noel-chabani-manganyi/.
A final example to support my concern of fleeting remarks about Prof. Manganyi as a biographer is drawn from Prof. Maluleka’s tribute, published on the 6th of November 2024 in the Daily Maverick. It may be said that Maluleka’s quoted sentence here, follows in the footsteps of Prof. Jonathan Jansen’s 2018 book review about Manganyi’s memoir, entitled ‘Apartheid and the Making of a Black Psychologist (2018)’ which won the ‘2018 ASSAf Humanities Book Award’. Prof Maluleka vitally submitted that “ Writing is ultimately autobiographical and none more so than Chabani Manganyi’s type of writing. In fact, Manganyi is a master biographer. He has bequeathed us five biographies in all-two autobiographies and the biographies of Mphahlele, Dumile Feni and Gerald Sekoto- not to mention his other paradigm-shifting monographs” (www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-11-06-chabani-manganyi-a-reflective-journey-through-apartheid-scholarship-and-the-human-spirit/). Overcoming the hereby raised obfuscation, will be my humble homage. Rest in peace Chabani Manganyi wa Mavambe wa Khutla wa Mukhane wa Bungu wa Mulekale wa Nsindavani wa Ripindzi ro phasa homu na rhole. Magoda! Manganyi!
