The Sunday Mail
Gibson Mandishona
When Phinias’s mother, Likeleli, was eight months pregnant with him, she suffered massive depression and anxiety, especially after having miscarried three times.
After being overwhelmed by this crushing feeling, she tried to commit suicide in the nearby Tuli River.
However, Mogorosi, her husband, who was hunting nearby (or could have been secretly trailing her), managed to rescue her. A month later, Mooketsi (which means the additional one in Sesotho) or Phinias — as renamed by an older brother — was born.
However, due to the close relationship I had with him, I will simply refer to Prof Makhurane as “Phinias”.
The Makhurane family hails from the Pedi group of Sotho-speaking people. Mogorosi was married to three wives, of which Phinias’s mother was the youngest.
As the last-born child in the family, Phinias was spoilt. He was breastfed until he was five.
In his autobiography, Phinias relates a story in which his father, together with two other men, wrestled and killed a lion using spears and machetes.
However, this duel with the vicious beast left Mogorosi — who was the sole breadwinner of a big family — blind. Out of the 14 Mogorosi children, only five proceeded beyond primary school.
The young Phinias was not enamoured to the idea of going to school because of tales of punishment and beatings he had heard.
A close cousin and friend at Manama School, however, persuaded him to give it a chance for a month before making a decision.
And this was the beginning of a long, decorated academic career.
At Manama School, Phinias faced challenges paying his school fees, but this was later solved as poor households were afforded the opportunity to contribute milk to the school as payment. It really paid off.
Phinias excelled in all classes.
He soon progressed to Mnene and Chegato, and finally to Zimuto Seconday School for his “O” levels.
He passed with distinction. I first met Phinias in 1961 when we pioneered the first “A” level class at Fletcher High School in Gweru.
In his autobiography, he writes: “One of my classmates, Gibson Mandishona, was a very competitive fellow…”
We were only five in the A-level Science class — myself, Phinias, Prof Chris Magadza, Dr Douglas Mufuka (now a nephrologist) and the late Walter Mthimukulu.
Phinias was a tad older and used to wear a traditional-style greyish jacket, presumably given to him by Swedish missionaries working in his home area. We, thus, nicknamed him “Dickens”, which did not amuse him.
At 24, when he was in his second year of the BSc (Physics and Mathematics) degree, he got married to his school-time sweetheart, Lydia.
Double brain
In his autobiography, Phinias puts paid to a rumour that a scan had revealed that he had double brains, a condition that was likely to lead to his death within five years.
He writes: “If only someone had mentioned this rumour to me, I would have set everybody’s mind at rest so that they would not have had to live next to someone who was about to die!”
After attaining the BSc at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Phinias left for the University of Sheffield (UK), where he completed a PhD in Solid State Physics in 1968.
Similarly, I complimented our long-term wish of doing justice to Mathematics by pioneering a PhD in the subject in 1975.
His thesis focused on investigating the behaviour of gold and manganese alloys at low temperatures using X-rays and neutron diffraction techniques.
The research involved frequent visits to Harwell Atomic Energy Research Station — the vault of Britain’s nuclear secrets.
The first visit to Harwell was dramatic: the security guards could not allow some unknown person, let alone a “man of colour”, to enter the premises.
After some checks, he was eventually allowed in. At times, Phinias felt despondent that his PhD studies were theoretical and didn’t have any immediate application in Rhodesia.
This possibly explains why he later drifted away from science into management.
His burning desire and natural wish was to immediately return home and take up lectureship at the University College of Rhodesia.
To his greatest shock, his application to become a lecturer was turned down on account that he was over-specialised to teach in the physics department.
This also happened at a time when most of the liberal staff members of the university had resigned and moved to Zambia or elsewhere in protest against the UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence).
However, African universities nearby provided him with viable alternatives.
He subsequently applied and moved to the University of Zambia, where he re-united with Professors Yates and Cyril Rogers.
The delayed action by the University of Zambia made him to seriously consider accepting an offer from a UK university.
His wife, Lydia, suggested that they wait for one week and indeed his preferred university came through.
Yearning to be home
In 1970, Phinias’s father died. His wife and kids attended the funeral as he was not able to come to the then-Rhodesia.
Whilst in Zambia, Phinias managed the affairs of the International University Exchange Fund, which catered for scholarships for Zimbabwean students, including political refugees.
When I was in the UK, I used to host some of the student refugees sent from Zambia.
He also hosted meetings at his UNZA house, which contributed towards the unification of Zapu and Zanu into a united political machinery.
“Politics follows the laws of physics: every action creates an equal and opposite reaction,” he said.
We remained great friends, although belonging to different parties.
In 1973, Phinias visited Botswana, where he had organised to meet his mother and brothers.
His mother recounted: “Your father died while you were away. Do you want me to die while you are away?”
This naturally drove him to move to the University of Botswana in 1974.
There he rose to the position of Deputy Vice Chancellor and participated in the development of progressive science teaching and university infrastructure.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”
In 1980, Zimbabwe got its independence.
The following year, Phinias moved back to Zimbabwe and became the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Principal of the University of Zimbabwe.
He worked tirelessly on the university’s infrastructure.
He actively participated in the establishment of NUST, putting together in a chain reaction mode the various experiences he had accumulated.
After ten years at the helm of UZ, he became the first Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo — a vibrant centre of academic excellence.
Lastly, in a skills enrichment process, Phinias became consultant in identifying core technical and professional experts and establishing the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education, becoming its first CEO.
“The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few.” (Matthew 9:37)
Overall, Phinias played significant roles spanning the academic, leadership, administrative and political spheres.
He represents the best qualities of the Zimbabwean society, which the youth should emulate.
Two persons were influential during his active life: his mother — “she never wanted to argue with anyone; and, as a result, she won all arguments,” he once said — and his wife, Lydia, who was pivotal in his enterprising decisions.
They were married for 48 years.
We pray to have the great physicist, thinker and statesman rest in peace: “a poor player who is heard no more”
“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight
But they while their companions slept
Were toiling upwards in the night. ” (Longfellow)
