Zimingonaphakade, Tefelo, and Cohen embody stories of resilience from the edge

 

Being at the edge often means that there are one of two options: falling off or rising to new heights. For most youth who live in marginalised neighbourhoods, however, there is not much of an option. They fall deep into the adversities of poverty, incomplete schooling, and unemployment. Without strong socialising agencies such as closely consistent parenting or development programmes, there is little chance that their personal agency can be enabled to rise above the limited resources at their disposal to achieve greatness.

Nurturing resilience is hard and gritty when you are at the edge. But it can be achieved.

As a teenager, Zimingonaphakade Sigenu never considered herself an exceptional student but always adopted an attitude of working hard and working consistently. As a learner at Luhlaza High School in the township of Khayelitsha, she was selected to be part of the University of Cape Town’s 100-Up Programme. It supports Grade 10-12 school learners from neighbourhoods that struggle with socio-economic adversity, coaching and mentoring candidates in order that they can compete on an even plane with youth from more affluent neighbourhoods for places at university.

With such support, Zimingonaphakade soared in her final high school examinations and university studies where she was selected for the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Programme at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Since 2002, the programme at UCT has identified and supported exceptional students towards becoming scholars of the highest distinction.

Each year a new cohort of five students are selected at the cusp of postgraduate study to begin sharpening their research talents towards a possible career in academia. Generously funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, the initiative provides regular and structured programming. Fellows receive stipends for term time research activities and further support for summer vacation research projects, faculty mentoring, and partial repayment of undergraduate student loans.

As she reflects on her experience thus far, Zimingonaphakade speaks of discovering new heights: “I am excited about the possibility of being an academic. I never thought about this before, but then Mellon Mays arrived and now I am able to compete with students whom I previously thought were in a different and better league.” Zimingonaphakade admits that transitioning to university life was a huge challenge, especially in her first year, because no-one in her family had attended university before. Initiatives such as the 100-Up programme helped to put her in touch with the resources necessary to strengthen her academic pursuits.

Tefelo Mathibane was also on the 100-Up programme in high school and qualified to study for a degree in Medicine at the University of Cape Town. He attributes much of his foundational success to the programme since it gave him a more competitive edge in mathematics and science, especially given the poor resources he had to contend with at school.

Tefelo maintains these heights of excellence at university. In 2016 he was awarded the Santilal Parbhoo Prize for best study project in molecular medicine.  It was always Tefelo’s ambition to pursue a career in medicine, since he identified a passion for wanting to help people and he is driven by a need to make a difference in combatting diseases such as Tuberculosis in Africa. This was the focus of his laboratory-based project, monitoring the distribution of mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) on the human lung system. His curiosity for asking questions and approaching solutions from diverse perspectives kept him up for many a late night on his experiments and write-up, earning him top honours.

Besides Tefelo himself, no-one else seems more excited about his achievements than his father whom he visits during vacation in the Eastern Cape: “He always tells me how proud he is, and fact that I am the first child of his to make it to varsity excites him even more. Whenever I speak with him about my studies, he reminds me that I should continue to work hard and he prays to the Lord that he doesn’t die before I graduate. He wants to see me succeeding.”

Close and consistent parental mentoring is also a critical element in the academic success of Cohen Charles who grew up in the poverty-stricken neighbourhood of Manenberg on the Cape Flats.

Not only is Cohen, and his twin brother Cameron, the first in their family to complete high school but Cohen is also the first person in his immediate part of the neighbourhood to attend university. He has just completed a four-year BA degree programme in Linguistics at the University of the Western Cape. His outstanding academic record has won him several accolades, including membership in the Golden Key Society and Deans Commendations.

Cohen’s story is all the more awe-inspiring in that he was raised by a single parent. His mother Elaine made a concerted effort to mentor her children and make certain that they were not exposed to negative influences in the neighbourhood. When they were still in primary school she would make charts of their maths and put them on the wall so that they could practice. She would make flash cards of their vocabulary and test them everyday after she got home from work. Cohen’s grandmother, who is now deceased, took care of him and his brother while Elaine was at work. They both monitored their homework and Elaine even helped them write essays, making sure that they kept pushing themselves towards higher grades at school and aiming for better results each year.

The highlight of Cohen’s academic journey thus far is that he has been selected to study at the University of Oslo in Norway as a bilateral exchange student. Cohen’s achievement is a powerful story of overcoming adversity and achieving success against all odds; a young man from challenging socio-economic circumstances now taking on the world!

Stories of achieving success against adversity, as seen through the eyes of Zimingonaphakade, Tefelo, and Cohen, are possible but often elusive. Without strong social support, their path towards success is compromised and many youth fall off the edge in marginalised neighbourhoods. For those who are enabled to soar towards new heights, their extraordinary examples of resilience emerge as catalysts for change and transformation; signs and symbols of the agency we ought to become for those straddle a marginal identity.

Written by Merlin Ince

Photograph Credits: Merlin Ince (Zimingonaphakade); Lu Nteya (Tefelo); The Daily Voice (Cohen)