Temba Black History Month Series
The late Dorah “Biki” Mashiane was a distinguished pioneer of nursing in Temba who served the profession with devotion and distinction from 1942 until her retirement in 1973 at the age of 60.
Born during the start of World War I on 30 September 1914 in Enkeldoorn near Pretoria, Mam Dorah, as she was affectionately known, was a seasoned nurse who received her professional training as a nurse at the famous Victoria Hospital (which was founded in 1898) in the university town of Alice in the Eastern Cape.
After completion of her training at the Victoria Hospital, she worked briefly to acquire experience at a clinic in Vereeniging in the Vaal Triangle and later her family relocated to Temba 1942 at a prime age of 28, together with the other “early setters” of Temba.
From 1942 to 1947 she worked at the Hammanskraal Clinic in nearby Lehwelereng where she served the local and neighbouring communities. It was during this time when she established the first community clinic at house number 217 Q Block (next door to her house no. 216 Q Block) in Oudstad, Temba. It was from the Q-217 Clinic that Mam Dorah consolidated her community service through health care. She also responded to house-calls using her bicycle to attend not only to medical emergencies, but also conducted home-based births to many children in the community.
With her extensive experience in nursing she became one of the first black nurses (at the age of 42) to work at the new Jubilee Mission Hospital which was established by the Baptist Missionary Society doctors in 1956 under the stewardship of Doctor Orchard, Doctor Robertson and later the celebrated Dr Malan who served Jubilee Hospital for many years. Nurse Mashiane continued to mentor so many new nurses into the profession and many qualified nurses has credited her as a major influence in their love for nursing.
After acquiring her driver`s license in 1956, a rare achievement in those early days for women, extended the services of Jubilee Hospital extensively to reach out to outlaying community clinics within the broader Hammanskraal districts to as far as Mametlhake, Makapanstad and other far flung villages.
It was during the 1960`s and early 70`s that her health care work touched so many and groomed into a true community worker and the “people`s nurse” who started working in education and social work.
After her retirement in 1973, she joined the Tumelo Mission which was a community outreach project for the St Albans Anglican Cathedral in Pretoria as a community worker. At Tumelo Mission she continued to use her extensive experience in the various poverty alleviation projects, collecting funding contributions from the affluent areas in and around Pretoria to provide food, clothing and blankets to impoverished communities.
One of her nine children, Shirley Mashiane-Talbot who is currently living and retired in Liverpool in the United Kingdom has this to say about the phenomenal legacy of her mother: “ During her lifetime, my mother was a selfless community nurse who served a community that suffered from the effect of poverty and the brutality of Apartheid. She was a proud African who valued her African heritage and thrived to affirm the dignity and identity of those that she served. She was a devout Christian who served her community beyond the definition of age, colour, class or religion”
Sadly Mam Dorah passed away in 1991 at the age of 77, after a short illness and her remains are interred “amongst her people” at the local cemetery in Temba.
This article is published as part of the Temba Black History Month Series to pay homage to Matron Dorah Biki Mashiane (1914-1991).
