From Apartheid to WhatsApp, Embracing the People of South Africa

Dr. Vilma Fuentes sits down with Santa Fe College chemistry professor, Dr. Alpheus Mautjana to discuss growing up in the era of apartheid in a Bantustan, his educational journey in South African and the United States. Dr. Mautjana discloses how he makes strides to not only connect with his students at Santa Fe College, but also how he continues to connect and provide educational resources to families currently living in South Africa. 

Transcript

Vilma Fuentes

Welcome to Santa Fe College. My ne is Vilma Fuentes and this is our podcast, Developing Global Citizens. Today I'm honored to have with us, Dr. Alpheus Mautjana, one of our distinguished chemistry professors at the college. You know, I think most people who know him, will probably just see him walking down the hall, see him in his office or in class and say, now there goes a great chemistry professor. He’s got a funny little accent. But you know, they may not know much else. And I have him here because I really want to know more about him and his background. So, Alpheus thank you for agreeing to meet with us.

Alpheus Mautjana

Thank you for inviting me.

Vilma Fuentes

So where are you from? Where's that accent from?

Alpheus Mautjana

I grew up in South Africa. For those that don't know, or I know many people know South Africa. But this is a country. You know, the ne has this geographic reference to it. But it's the name of the country, official name of the country at the very bottom of the big continent. South Africa. And I grew up in the Limpopo Province to the north end of the country.

Vilma Fuentes

So North Eastern Province in South Africa.

Alpheus Mautjana

Yeah, the very north, the North most province of South Africa.

Vilma Fuentes

So, what is your mother tongue?

Alpheus Mautjana

My mother tongue is called Sepedi

Vilma Fuentes

Sepedi.

Alpheus Mautjana

Yeah.

Vilma Fuentes

Is that spoken in all of Limpopo?

Alpheus Mautjana

Most part of Limpopo.

Vilma Fuentes

Yes.

Alpheus Mautjana

Now I will say most part of Limpopo. Now, if you went into the Bantustans into the, the...

Vilma Fuentes

Tribal homelands.

Alpheus Mautjana

Tribal homelands, in my tribal homeland was called Lebowa, in the Lebowa government or the Lebowa tribal government. That that was the language spoken throughout. But now that the provinces have been, the demarcation has been redone the different homelands are in the se province or you have, Venda, you have my language Sepedi, and you have Tsonga and other languages.

Vilma Fuentes

How many official languages, does South Africa have?

Alpheus Mautjana

Quite a few, nine, nine. 

Vilma Fuentes

Nine official languages. So, you're speaking English? How old were you when you learned English?

Alpheus Mautjana

Good question. So, I would say at high school

Vilma Fuentes

High school.

Alpheus Mautjana

So, yeah, you could say, 15,16 year.

Vilma Fuentes

And, but so there's more to it, you grew up during a really special period in time, I believe you were born and raised during the apartheid era in South Africa. And you lived in a Bantustan. So, what is that? So, what is a Bantustan? Explain it please, to us Americans, maybe especially those that are too young, and don't understand it. And help us understand what that meant. Day to day growing up there.

Alpheus Mautjana

So many people may have had about the apartheid era. This is the era when you could say the country, was you know, separated.  Bantustans, because my people apparently are called Bantu. Bantustans that’s where they lived, it's nothing more than a reserve. It's not a municipal. It's simply a reserve where black people live, and their movements were restricted. They couldn't buy land elsewhere in the city, they could only buy land right there in the reserve.

Vilma Fuentes

So let me try to understand this from an American perspective. So, a Bantustan is kind of like I think, like a Native American reserve (Right?) that you might have like for the Cherokee Indians, or the Seminole Indians. Right? They live in a reserve and in a reserve, you have your own laws, you have your own political organization, you could do whatever you want. It's your reserve. That that was a Bantustan. Right? That's one of these tribal homelands that you were raised in.

Those are the tribal homes. And it's not a small area, you know.  There's many villages, and it's a big area of effect is the government, the South African government, to which the apartheid government was, if you looked at on it on the map, there, just, you know, spots over here, over there. And all these other spaces this.

Vilma Fuentes

They were non-contiguous. And would it be safe to say that the best lands in South Africa were in owned by whites?

Alpheus Mautjana

Yes. Because really, the blacks or the natives were mostly agricultural, you know.  They would just look for, you know, the plains where they could, their herds could graze. That's about as far as res. that as much resources as they looked for, you know, there was better rains and stuff. Not mining, you know, for example, or strategic positions with that account, you know, of trade with other countries, none of that. And the settlers had that and what on top of it, this is really important. Education, they have educated you know, higher education, their population was educated.

Vilma Fuentes

And in a Bantustan, in a tribal homeland, what was your education like this?

Alpheus Mautjana

It's called Bantu education. I'm going to read an excerpt from Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Vilma Fuentes

Okay

Alpheus Mautjana

It describes Bantu education this way. I'm reading.

Vilma Fuentes

Okay. 

Alpheus Mautjana

The Act required black children to attend to government schools, teaching was to take place in the student's native tongue. Though the syllabus impeded classes in English and Afrikaans instruction was mandated in needlework for girls and craft, planting, and soil conservation as well as arithmetic, social studies in the Christian religion, education was aimed at training the children for manual labor and menial jobs that the government deems suitable for those of their race. And it was explicitly intended to inculcate the idea that black people were subservient to white South Africans. funding for the schools was to come from taxes paid by the communities that they serve. So black schools received only a small fraction of the amount of money that was available to their white counterparts. As a result, there was a profound shortage of qualified teachers, attempts by activists to give children a better education were illegal under the Bantu Education Act.

Vilma Fuentes

Thank you for sharing that excerpt from Encyclopedia Britannica. So, I want to understand what this meant for children like you growing up in this apartheid period. So, you said your mother tongue was the Sepedi. You're making this sound like it was so easy to transition from primary to secondary to high school. But at least what I've read, and tell me if I'm not correct, but a lot of children never made it past elementary school during this period. Because the language suddenly changed. But sometimes even the education you received wasn't all that good. So, you've made it from primary school in tribal homeland learning Sepedi to a PhD at the University of Florida in chemistry. That's like a, I … Tell me about that journey. How easy and difficult was it?

Alpheus Mautjana

And I'm not more gifted than anybody else.

Vilma Fuentes

No, but you are unique?

Alpheus Mautjana

Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment. Most parents, certainly my parents want their kids to go to school. It is true that many young people wanted to just earn income, you know, people, young people just wanted to grow up and go find a job. And it was possible at those in those days. If, if you're there may be worked at some factory or the mine or something that you can drop out of school and go be employed. You know, because for most of our parents, they, you know, it was even worse during their time. And they managed to find work. So, they were not better educated than then if you dropped out of school. So, and they knew where you could find employment. So that was a challenge for people--not to, you know, to leave school. Some left early. 

Vilma Fuentes

Just to make money.

Alpheus Mautjana

Just to make money. 

Vilma Fuentes

So, so what, so in the school, how easy or difficult was it for you to go to school and just finished the primary school years and then go and start learning English?

Alpheus Mautjana

I'll say this way Vilma, that, you know, it's like, if you brought a child into an environment, it becomes what they know because it was what we knew.

Alpheus Mautjana

Right. 

Alpheus Mautjana

And I did not feel apartheid. You know, we just grew up. We just went to school. We knew our teachers. We knew each other made, you know, we just lived our lives. And all the way to high school things begin to be… you begin to look when you get to high school. Because then the journey otherwise ends there. You know, you go find a job, if somebody can take you along. And many of us wanted this, you know, about to finish. If you had uncles you try to, you know, talk with them.

Vilma Fuentes

Get a job.

Alpheus Mautjana

Yeah, take you with them. But then, (and I didn't have many people that could take me) then then you start looking, and I started reading. I just started informing myself when I was in high school. And I would, you know, find addresses of places. And I would apply--apply for funding, apply to be accepted as a student, and now just send all these letters. My mom would take them, you know, to the post office and mail them away. And, and I would receive, you know, the reply letters. And that's how I made it. That's how I made it. I was invited by one white, white, technikon, is what we called them. 

Vilma Fuentes

Technikon, a technical college today.

Alpheus Mautjana

You could say a technical college. They, they have transformed. They have been, they are now called Technical University, University of Technology. That's what they're called today. They were called technikons and see it was equivalent to what Santa Fe is doing in this field, like like this. And it was white. It was in front of the old park. That's where I got my first diploma--what what equivalent to what we call A.S. degrees here. And, uh. 

Vilma Fuentes

In what?

Alpheus Mautjana

Then I stayed on, in chemistry. And, and I stayed on to do what was called a bachelor's degree in technology. I did it. I stayed on. To complete a diploma you have to find internship. I was lucky to get internship from a company called AECI. This was in Johannesburg. And I went and worked there.

Vilma Fuentes

Is that a chemical company?

Alpheus Mautjana

It is a chemical company, did my internship there. And, so you did three semesters of courses and then three semesters of internship and then you got your diploma. And after the diploma, you decided to stay on working, or to do a bachelors. My employer was very encouraging. And they encouraged me to continue, and I continued to the BTEC. I finished that after I finished that...

Alpheus Mautjana

BTEC, Bachelor's in Technology?

Alpheus Mautjana

Bachelors in technology. And after I finished that, they encouraged me to move along. But they encouraged me not to stay, you know, at bachelor's here. They encouraged me to apply to university. That bridge is not a common path. 

Vilma Fuentes

Yeah. 

Alpheus Mautjana

Yeah.

Vilma Fuentes

Not in South Africa. 

Alpheus Mautjana

Not in South Africa.

Vilma Fuentes

It's very difficult. So let me see if I can interpret this from an American or Floridian perspective. So here, a student can graduate from Santa Fe College, and can transfer to the University of Florida or any university, seamlessly. But in South Africa, even today, this is not possible. But if you know somebody at the receiving University, who is willing to advocate for you and take your case, like you,

Alpheus Mautjana

If you're like me, and you had someone who's willing to fund you, so you're not going to go there and become the public charge of the university. 

Vilma Fuentes

Right. 

Alpheus Mautjana

Yeah.

Vilma Fuentes

So, who funded you? 

Alpheus Mautjana

AECI, the company.

Alpheus Mautjana

AECI, so they invested in you because they wanted you to get more education and come back? I'm guessing,

Alpheus Mautjana

I think so. But I also think, in general, in South Africa, during apartheid, I feel this is just me thinking. I feel that, you know, people with conscience, when they see talent, and they know what's going on. I'm really a believer and apolitical. I've never really been sentis..., sensitized politically. When they see these things, and they can do something to help, they do it. I feel they do it. And I happen to be at the right, you know, meet the right people at the right time, and opportunities where there and the door swung open.

Vilma Fuentes

All of this is important, like in the US context, we might say, yeah, no big deal, except that in South Africa, it's 80% black and like 20% white, but okay. And then from there, you went to Cape Town and three, tell me about those regional differences from Limpopo to Johannesburg to Cape Town, is it all the same thing? 

Alpheus Mautjana

It's not. So, so Founders Hill Park and Modderfontein where the company is located and *** Park is where my college is located. They are in the Gauteng province. This is the economic hub, this auto industry, they were traditionally gold mines over then the city grew up out of that it's sprawling in all these cities are not very far from each other.

Vilma Fuentes

Gauteng is also where the capital of Pretoria is located? 

Alpheus Mautjana

Pretoria and the city of Johannesburg is located.

Vilma Fuentes

The two powerhouses. 

Alpheus Mautjana

Yes, yes. Yes. Now Cape Town is, is, it has a rich history because that's where the white people arrived. You know, that's a port of entry, you could say, for many white people who arrived early on in their ships. And it's a city. It's a big city.

Vilma Fuentes

I've heard that it's a very multicultural city.

Alpheus Mautjana

Very multicultural. 

Vilma Fuentes

That, it almost feels European, I've heard. 

Alpheus Mautjana

Yeah, it does very much. So given the weather when I went today, the weather seemed different. You could say it has Mediterranean weather. You know, it rains in winter. And in my, in Limpopo, the hardly rains in winter. It rains in the summer. 

Vilma Fuentes

So, and in Limpopo, how would you describe that? Is that more rural?

Alpheus Mautjana

More rural, very much rural. And there are towns, you know, smaller towns. There's so much out migration that if you went to Limpopo more, the average village would have mostly the mothers, you know, grandmothers and older elderly population--mothers, maybe who are married, and their husbands are migrant workers. You hardly found a young man living there. We moved out.

Vilma Fuentes

So, speaking of that, I know you've mentioned to me before that you helped establish an NGO, a non-governmental organization to help in your community, your home community. Is that correct?

Alpheus Mautjana

Now when I worked at AECI, I lived in the nearby townships or the cities where there was a policy called Group Areas Act. So, you have these black townships, and then you have the suburbs. 

Vilma Fuentes

Like black neighborhoods. 

Alpheus Mautjana

Yeah. So, I lived I lived in Tembisa which is a township, you know, to the east of Johannesburg. And me and other colleagues who work for other companies, you know, we got together and we started what was called Tembisa Youth Development Initiative. We used to call it TYDI. And they were really trying to coordinate resources. And, you know, if we could speak, we felt when we're a group, we could approach funders, potential sponsors, and we could help fund the youth receive them, youth that are just, you know, a falling through the cracks, help them persist in their schools and see if we could develop, you know, create bridges for them to go to some to technical, like I did, and then end up coming to work at a company, like I did, or something like that. So, we did do that. Yes. And we were at the beginning, we would funded it out of our pockets.

Alpheus Mautjana

Just you believed in the mission, we believed in the mission to help the next generation. 

Alpheus Mautjana

Yes. 

Vilma Fuentes

You've also shared with me that you have another project that I don't know, maybe it's complete. You're trying to translate, I believe you said, a math book to Sepedi. 

Alpheus Mautjana

Haha. 

Vilma Fuentes

I haven't forgotten.

Alpheus Mautjana

I'm very impressed. And very pleased Velma I now with that project it is a long a long journey. I have written it. Right now, I finished it. When I spoke to you, it was just the arithmetic part. And now I have finished. I'm about to finish the algebra part. I'm introducing variables and equation, polynomials. I'm done with that part.

Vilma Fuentes

So why would you want to write a math book in Sepedi? You're a chemist? Why not a chemistry book?

Alpheus Mautjana

So, So now, after, after all these learning about chemistry and everything, I come to Santa Fe, I've been elsewhere. Other things come here. And I can see Santa Fe helps me, helps me to see that. There's something I can share with the younger people that my students. And I'm sharing it ever since I started as a, as an intern. I've always, you know, would sponsor, mentor, like I would pay the little fee. Or if I were ever in the room and somebody said to me, “They don't have a text book,” I would buy it. If they said “I'm trying to apply for …” I, I would help them fill in the application and go mail it, if they wanted to go, you know.

Vilma Fuentes

Little things to help others. 

Vilma Fuentes

I did this mostly for my relatives. And it really caught on, Vilma. It caught on. I have mothers calling me and saying, “My son this age” and “My son this.” And they send me an email, and I have WhatsApp. And they reach out, and I help them with homework. And I help them.

Vilma Fuentes

Even here from the U.S.? 

Vilma Fuentes

WhattsApp, WhattsApp. 

Vilma Fuentes

On WhattsApp? You, you help them with homework?

Alpheus Mautjana

One of them was just accepted to the University of Pretoria. And whenever I can help, I do. And so, it's not chemistry for them. Chemistry is way up there. And I'm like, I can't do that. What I, what they need is math. 

Vilma Fuentes

It's the basic for all STEM, right. If you can't do math, you can't do science.

Alpheus Mautjana

Right, you can see it here. It's a requisite no matter where you go. You have to take math. It’s a general course. And so, I said, you know, maybe teaching chemistry, but I was trained in math. I did all the way to calculus. Why can’t I? So, what I did, in my head, is those kids whose mom I had a talk. the law was my parents are the laws. They're the village, and I talk with them. You know, we talk for hours. WhattsApp--it’s a gift. Yes, is a gift because they can reach out to me via WhatsApp. And we do it. And so, I'm seeing all these homeworks that I’m helping them—you know, trigonometry and geometry, algebra.

Vilma Fuentes

So, it's clear to me that your heart is still back in South Africa or certainly you're very it's very present on your mind--the families, the community members that you left. Why did you leave? Was it just to come and study?

Alpheus Mautjana

Good question. So, I'm a young student under the Ministry of Capetown. Here comes this visiting professor from the University of Florida, Professor Hunt Davis, professor of history, and his wife Jean—friendly as you could ever wish. And Hunt challenges me. He's a professor of history of history, African Studies precisely. He says to me, “Alpheus, how about would you go to the United States for your PhD masters? Would you go to university for a PhD?” And I was thinking, “No, not, not, not, not the U.S.” I'd rather go to Germany or someplace like that. But we kind of carried on the discussion. And we share contacts and I said, “Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt if I got the award. But I came really to study, to explore, you know. And my wife said, “Yeah, why not? We can. We can go.” And so, we rent our house. We don't sell because we're coming back. We rent our house and come over. And that's how we came to the US. And stay here for five years. My wife was able to visit and come over the year, for five years. And in 2008 I finished, went back to South Africa, got a job as a postdoc at Stellenbosch. And that's how we went back. But my wife doesn't like it, didn't like it there.

Vilma Fuentes

She didn't like Stellenbosch, the Africaner town.

Alpheus Mautjana

Our son is a little grown. He was having issues at his school. He's black. He doesn't even speak...

Vilma Fuentes

Afrikaans.

Alpheus Mautjana

Oh, no the local black languages. And the people who are beating on him are not local African. They are white. Because he went, we would call it, to a Model C. We couldn't get him into government school. They said he is too young to be trained to the grade that...

Vilma Fuentes

He was too advanced for his age. 

Alpheus Mautjana

He was too advanced for his age.

Vilma Fuentes

So, he, because you had given him good education. 

Alpheus Mautjana

He was lucky too because he started at Baby Gator. And he was advanced. He was maybe a little too young or something. But he was advanced. And so, he found a school that would accept him. He went there. And he had problems. And my wife kept applying and applying and finally got a yes, you got an invitation to U.S. 

Vilma Fuentes

And with a green card. So would it be safe to say that you left South Africa because your family didn’t like the... 

Alpheus Mautjana

They didn't have much opportunities and as a family, we could do better. And then I had a nice job. I even started recruiting students and I raised money. I built, I started a lab, bought equipment, I was publishing, I struggling various conferences. But we thought… my wife, and she, for her it was very hard. It was like a dead end to find opportunities to further education. And our son… and I'm listening. My son is praying. He prays when he goes to bed. Every night, he's praying, “Jehovah, please help me get the paper so we can go to United States.” It stabbed me. I was just stabbed in my heart. And when it happened finally, I tell you I was really just a mush. I would, I would give anything to stay there. But for them, I had to come here. Without a job Vilma. Without no job. 

Vilma Fuentes

Wow. 

Alpheus Mautjana

But the United States invited us, but no job. And I just had to rely. I knew this is the United States. I'll find it y'all came in. And I did find a job. I worked at McDonald's. I worked the grill at McDonald's, and I delivered papers for The Gainesville Sun for a little bit. And then Sture hired me at Santa Fe College. 

Alpheus Mautjana

At Santa Fe. Well, we are the better for it. From a tribal homeland in Limpopo, South Africa to Johannesburg to Cape Town to Gainesville. And now here at Santa Fe. How do you share these experiences with students? How? Do they know anything about this? Have you been able to share or do they just see you as the chemistry professor?

Alpheus Mautjana

You know Santa Fe is a unique place. It's more than, it's a college is more than just an institution... you know you have an institution where people go to school come home and live their life. Santa Fe is so integrated, I mean every time I look, there's, there's teams, you know, team project. And I look and President Brodie is proposing Achieve, Santa Fe Achieve. And nobody's overlooked. And is so much integrated in the community. Santa Fe College is weird. It's just that, when I teach, when I teach my classes, I always find that students are, students are like looking. If, if they find a person who cares. I mean, it's like, it's like we're looking for is like a plant that's looking for somebody who has the patience to water it, or has the patience to connect to it, you know, cover it with a blanket so it doesn't get frostbite or something. Students are like that. And when you respond, you see them learn. And that's been my experience in Santa Fe. My career also has been, I think, very, I've been fortunate because I worked in this research lab when I was an intern, with all these chemists as part of a team. I can share that part of it, and I can tell them the conceptual learning, that's where they lead, you know, to synthesis of drugs to biochemistry, or all this. I've seen, you know, and I can talk about plastics. Talk about I've had opportunity to learn these things. And then above all, this, when I finished with my masters, I was made what's called a team manager at AECI. And I was made a technical officer. I was we made a technical manager in the factory, you know, plant technical manager. And I worked with engineers, as a technical manager. And I could, what I did, before I came here at AECI was more engineering chemistry because I worked in a manufacturing plant. And I share all this information and you see this because clearly listen, either you want to be engineers, I relate to how far you need this. Engineers love this. And I will explain why. And those of you that are going to pharmacy school route will love this. And I'm teaching kinetics showing, showing, you know, like mechanic, mechanisms, what do you call a chemical reaction in general chemistry is just a snippet, a chemical reaction, and I show them in organic mechanical mechanism, the whole organic synthesis cloud that I showed them, and I think that's what I give to my students like that.

Vilma Fuentes

Thank you for sharing your inspiring story and telling us all the things you do to connect with students here in Florida and with others back home