PALI LEHOHLA | The long arc of restoration: from Tiyo Soga to the African Renaissance

The last three weeks have been more than a schedule of events; they have been an immersion into the very fabric of South Africa’s capability and memory. This journey, traversing scientific innovation, community dialogue, and cultural restoration, demonstrated a nation not merely recalling its past but actively using it to sculpt its future.

The experience brought into sharp relief the interplay between technological advancement and spiritual grounding, anchored by a powerful moment of cultural recovery at the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Centre where we met with a youth that should immerse itself in answering the question “what future are we building for the next generation?” now that they have taken the baton from the class of 1976.

Whatever they have in their hands and brain is now what they have. The next 50 years must be about crystal clarity of design and execution of what they hand over to the class of 2076.

Phokeng Cooling

Innovation, when successful, often requires no explanation. Our ensuing work with the University of Johannesburg, formalised by a meeting with deputy vice chancellor Prof Refiloe Phaswana-Mafuya, was an exercise in pure capability. Our focus is Phokeng Evaporative Cooling, a home-grown technological response to an existential challenge.

The visual record of our progress is distinct. It is captured in the formal foundation, showing a group of dedicated professionals involved in establishing the collaboration at UJ. The atmosphere shifts dramatically, in which with the department of science, technology and innovation, I presented the core of the innovation.

This prototype was taken to Bloomberg for a showcase with Dr Aguil Deng. What followed became the signature anecdote of the trip.

The central temperature control operator, monitoring the building’s climate, called our specific boardroom. Confused, the operator asked what “mystery” was taking place in the room because the temperature had plummeted to 16°C. We had said very little, yet the Phokeng technology had proved itself, a moment witnessed and affirmed by colleagues, as seen during our time at Bloomberg.

Far in Matebeleland, Phokeng Cooling System was a centre of attraction as it captured the attention of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, where Phokeng Global Health and Environmental Solutions is collaborating with the UNDP Zimbabwe, the government of Zimbabwe and research institutions and the Universities of Zimbabwe to solve an existential challenge.

Drones, sermons and Soweto

The narrative arc extended beyond the laboratory. Technology must connect with people and their lived reality. An afternoon with Prof Peter Mothibi of Unisa demonstrated this beautifully. He displayed his advanced drone technology at a football pitch in Midrand, captured vividly where I tried my hand at it. The drone was visible against the clear sky, symbolising the heights South African academic innovation is reaching and can reach.

This innovation, however, finds its counterweight in spiritual and historical grounding. At the Methodist Church of Houghton, Rev Nkosinathi Geja invited me to deliver a sermon and to discuss South Africa in numbers. This was quickly followed by an invitation from Tlhopheho Modise to address the Moletsane Secondary School alumni.

June 16, a date etched in our historical consciousness, brought the narrative to Naledi, Soweto. Meeting with four local schools, the dialogue centred on the challenges facing today’s youth and the profound generational handover — asking what the generation of 1976 is entrusting to the generation of 2026. This was not a passive commemoration; it was an act of communion, a transmission of memory. The students took it up like fish to water. Two slides into the presentation the students were discussing their condition and what to do about it.

Soga’s summon

This immersion in memory and renewal culminated on Saturday, June 20, at the Wits Great Hall. The Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) and Classics on Turf hosted a concert that was less a performance and more an act of spiritual and historical recovery. When called to at least address us beyond the happy birthday song, former president Thabo Mbeki would quip that he was nominally turning 84. The evening’s true objective was to restore Tiyo Soga to the African Renaissance. Indeed the event welded these two giants to the Africa renewal programme.

The thread linking the Phokeng cooling mystery to the echoing hymns of Soga and Great Zimbabwe is simple: South Africa’s capacity for self-renewal through the recovery of memory.

Born in 1829, Soga was a man of staggering intellect and spiritual foresight. He was the first black South African ordained as a church minister, a translator, an essayist and a composer of over 30 hymns. In August 1862, he founded the Xhosa-language newspaper Indaba, writing under the pen name Nonjiba Waseluhlangeni, the “Dove of the Nation”.

President Mbeki described Soga’s most famous hymn, Lizalis’ ’idinga Lakho (Fulfil Thy Promise), as something that began as a prayer but now stands as a “summons”. The restoration effort, directed by Mandisi Dyantyis and conducted by Kutlwano Masote with the Chamber Orchestra of Johannesburg and the Renaissance Singers, succeeded in bringing Soga’s 19th-century vision directly into our 21st-century reality. Dyantyis, a musician with a deep feel for the African idiom, ensured that 19th-century hymnody resonated powerfully in the contemporary space.

The public response affirmed a “deep public hunger for cultural work that treats African memory with care, excellence and imagination”. The success of the evening, made possible by Wiphold and supported by SAfm, points directly to the future mission of the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Centre: reclaiming Africa’s memory to build its future.

The thread linking the Phokeng cooling mystery to the echoing hymns of Soga and Great Zimbabwe is simple: South Africa’s capacity for self-renewal through the recovery of memory. Innovation in technology and restoration in culture are not divergent paths; they are parallel expressions of a nation engaged in a long conversation about who we are, where we come from, and what we still owe the future. Soga offered his wisdom, and it is now our task to act.