Temba Black History Month Series
They are the “early midwives of Temba”, the early professional nurses who “literally and figuratively” gave birth to the Temba Community whose surgical hands gave the first touch to the soft brittle heads of many and who had the responsibility to cut the umbilical cord to separate the “mother and child”.
If it were in true Xhosa culture, these early midwives would have performed the “Inkaba” ritual to bury the umbilical cord and placenta to symbolically seal the attachment of the babies to their ancestral land of Temba.
The elders would then host the “Imbeleko” ceremony and slaughter a goat to welcome the new born child to the greater community. The skin of the “slaughtered goat” then becomes a sacred item for the new community member, the baby, who will sleep on it in the future in times of trouble and distress, signifying a desire to connect with the ancestors.
The specialized training of these “pioneer midwives”, equipped them to recognize the variation of normal progress of labor and understand how to deal with deviations from the normal process of natural labor. They had the professional skill to use non-invasive techniques to intervene in high risk situations such as breech births, twin births and births where the baby is in a posterior position that hampered the labor process.
These “Nightingales of Temba” paid credence and lived true to the words of Florence Nightingale when she said: “Nursing is an art; and if it is to be made an art, it requires as exclusive a devotion, as hard a preparation, as any painter`s or sculptor`s work”. It is with their devoted art and science of nursing that these amazing women of the lamp, facilitated child birth and post-natal care to many in the Temba community from the 1940`s until they existed the world with grace and honor, to meet their maker.
It was during the funeral of the late Matron Matlhare in 2017 that one of the community members Mrs. Moraka – of the PHL Moraka family – attested to how Ma-Matlhare was the family midwife to all her children including one of her sons who was so big at birth that Ma-Matlhare nick-named him “Two Boy”. With little health facilities during these early years, these astute midwives were often called to perform home-births at many homes in and around Temba.
Just the other day at a funeral Ma-Moche from Oudstad recollected how she was told by her late mother that Matron Ma-Mashiane was the one who assisted her birth in 1951 at her home. Whilst many priests have the unenviable task to recite those last solemn words “dust to dust”, the midwives are the ones who would pronounce: “it’s a boy or girl”, bringing joy to the often-exhausted mother.
Now Dorah Biki Mashiane was the first nurse in Temba who relocated to Temba in 1942. And his son Bra Rinzo Mashiane, shares the story on how her mother ran the first clinic (Q-Block 217) next door to their home (Q-Block 216). And how she used to cycle around in the old township to tend to the sickly. (see her full life story elsewhere on this publication)
It is until you see the distraught faces of would-be mothers who lose their new-born at or during childbirth, that you realize the critical importance of the midwives in the successful delivery of an unborn child. Or when you see the little graves with Teddy-Bear shaped tombstones at the local cemetery, of those children who die within their first few days or week on earth, that you appreciate the need for skillful post-natal care.
Clad in their lily-white and spotless uniform and shiny brown shoes, nurses were not just good at their profession, they were beautiful and classy and the envy of the community. Their work of compassion made them to be some of the most sort after wives in the community and as result most of them were married by men who were either in the teaching, legal or business fraternity. Their rare attributes also qualified them to be some preacher`s wife. This trend deriving from the nobility of their profession as caregivers with the acumen to bring up a good family and take care of their suitors.
The early history of nursing and medicine in Temba also coincided with the establishment of Jubilee Hospital in 1956 by the Baptist Missionary Society doctors including doctors Malan and Robertson. Founded as a “make-shift backyard garage”, Jubilee Hospital attracted some of the early nurses like Ma-Matlhare who transferred from Baragwanath Hospital in Joburg to become one of the founding nurses in 1956.
Another long-serving nurse was Ausi Meisie Kgaphola who transferred to Jubilee Hospital in 1961 after her brief stint as an auxiliary nurse and midwife at the Donald Fraser Hospital in Thohoyandou, Venda. Ausi Meisie Kgaphola also worked under Sister Lekgetha and Thobakgale at the old Kekanastad Clinic in Majaneng Village. Others include bo Mme-Makou, whose son the late Monageng Makou was killed on 4 June 1984 through a parcel bomb by the Apartheid police in Manzini, Swaziland.
Community members who have more information about the other illustrious nurses who have served Temba with distinction including heroes in other professions are requested to send their biographies or obituaries to info@moreteletimes.co.za
