A eulogy delivered on the occasion of the memorial service of Dr Mabhaca Joseph Malinga at the University of Venda, Thohoyandou, in Limpopo, South Africa, on 05 June 2024.
It is hypothetically asked: “if a big tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear the sound it makes when it falls, has it ever lived?” In response, it is said: “what matters is not the sound it makes when it falls but the silence it leaves behind, which is the legacy.” Undoubtedly, and without any fear of contradiction, Dr Mabhaca Joseph Malinga, affectionately known as Bra Joe, left humanity a sterling legacy to treasure! However, there is just a roar of silence about the passing of this great legend. We therefore owe a debt of gratitude to the organisers of this memorial service for creating a worthy platform to reflect who this beautiful soul was and how do we carry on with his legacy.
Bra Joe was a brilliant saxophonist, academic, an educator, community developer and above all, a friend to people from diverse walks of life until he gave his last breath at the age of 74 on Thursday, 30 May 2024 after a short illness.
In his youth, Bra Joe received a scholarship while staying in the dusty streets of Mathendele location, in the Kingdom of Eswatini to study journalism in Europe. However, fate destined him to study music instead. His passion for music was honed, in part, by the legendary South African jazz musicians such as the virtuoso pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim, and alto saxophonist maestro, the late Dudu Pukwane. While in Europe, Bra Joe formed part of a galaxy of struggle artists who used the arts as a weapon to fight white racist supremacy, apartheid, and cultural imperialism.
His glowing love for Africa, just like his contemporaries, imbued him with a sense of cultural and artistic assertiveness. Even though he was eventually exiled in Europe, where Europeans did not know or understand African indigenous languages, he composed his music mainly in African languages against the dictates of dominant Eurocentric culture. He used music to speak truth to power as epitomised by his song, “iTwenty-Five”, from his album, “Joe Malinga & Southern Africa Force – Vuka”, released in 1989.
“iTwenty-Five” is a song that decry the fact that Africans in Africa, including elsewhere in the world, are a nation of workers. They wake up in their millions in the morning from their villages, townships, and ghettos to report to work in the kitchens, gardens, mines, factories, firms, and farms of other people. In the afternoon, they migrate in the opposite direction back to their squalid homes. While at work, most of them are treated like the “beasts of burden” doing backbreaking work for meagre financial reward mostly on the 25th of each month. In the present day, the dreaded lived experience of Africans as a nation of workers is attested to by the fact that they are, mainly, the largest population segment in the big, organised labour unions in Africa while in most cases non-Africans own wealth, means of production and the land.
In paying homage to Bra Joe, we should be willing and ready to conscientise our fellow Africans brothers and sisters that their poverty-stricken conditions and continued suffering during independence of their countries were not created by God, but they are direct product of policies of colonialism, apartheid, and democratic misrule. We should emulate Bra Joe by declaring in word and deeds that we are a solution and not a problem in Africa. We should avoid being collapsed into finger-pointing and self-justification blame game.
Bra Joe was humble and had an infectious laughter. He was a quintessential African who shunned limelight. He never fatigued himself with the vein pursuit of fame or fortunes because he knew that it is at best, transient and at worse, proves sterile with time. He chose a more blistering path of struggle for a true humanity for all irrespective of race, gender, creed, or nationality. He lived a life of service and self-sacrifice throughout his life. The poor and downtrodden were the ones mostly at the receiving end of his passionate service. In essence, this could be demonstrated by his dedication to teaching primary school children and those in kindergartens around Vhembe how to play the Okarina. He developed a curriculum which provided a scientific framework to teach music in primary schools.
After this memorial service, just like Bra Joe, a magnetic smile should adorn our faces as we go to our respective places of abode to become solutions to a myriad of challenges that stare communities in the face. We must honour Bra Joe by becoming revolutionary activists in our own spaces in a quest to put a more humane face on Africa guided by the sacred principle of Ubuntu…. Rest in peace Bra Joe, Son of the Soil!