NMU rewards legal and literary stars with honorary doctorates

From interpreting legal conversations in a rural village for no pay, to reshaping contours of SA’s judiciary, the life of Justice Cecil Mpho Somyalo is a story of quiet determination and historic firsts that culminated in him being conferred with an honorary doctorate at the weekend.

And in a moment that braided together memory, scholarship and homecoming, one of SA’s most acclaimed literary voices, Prof Gabeba Baderoon, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature by Nelson Mandela University during its autumn graduation ceremony.

Somyalo was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws, recognising a career that has not only spanned more than four decades but helped redefine the architecture of justice in democratic SA.

Born in Qumbu, Somyalo’s introduction to the law saw him spend his school holidays interpreting for a local attorney with no pay.

“My interest in law began not in a lecture hall, but in a village in the 1950s,” he said. “As a student, during the school holidays, I would act as an interpreter for a local attorney in my village of Qumbu.

“I was not paid a cent for this, and yet I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. There is something about the law, even when encountered informally, that captures the imagination.

“It speaks to justice, to the dignity of ordinary people navigating extraordinary circumstances.”

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Fort Hare and beginning his career as a teacher, Justice Somyalo returned to pursue legal studies through Unisa.

Admitted as an attorney in 1971, he went on to practise law in Gqeberha for more than two decades and was appointed to the bench in 1995.

In 1997, he became the first black jurist to be appointed judge president of the Transkei Division and judge president of the Eastern Cape Division of the high court just two years later.

In 2001, he served two terms as an acting justice of the Constitutional Court of SA.

He called on newly qualified legal practitioners to think boldly and broadly.

“Do not confine your ambitions to what is familiar or comfortable.

“The greatest contribution you can make — to your families, to your communities, to this country — may require you to go somewhere you have never been, to do something that has never been done before, to stand in rooms where people do not expect to see someone who looks like you.”

For Prof Baderoon, the recognition was not only an academic milestone, but a deeply personal return to where her life began.

Prof Gabeba Baderoon is awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature by Nelson Mandela University. (Supplied)

“I breathed my first breath just 14km from here,” she said in her acceptance speech.

“The air of the Eastern Cape lives within me.”

A poet, scholar and public intellectual of international standing, Baderoon’s work has long explored the intimate intersections of memory, identity, belonging and justice.

Currently an associate professor at Pennsylvania State University, her scholarship and creative writing span continents, while remaining firmly rooted in the context and histories of South African life.

Her writing, from poetry collections such as The Dream in the Next Body and The History of Intimacy to her acclaimed non-fiction, has consistently illuminated the ways personal histories are shaped by broader social forces, including colonialism, apartheid, migration and faith.

Her scholarship has also foregrounded often-marginalised voices, particularly in her work on Muslim identity in SA and her co-leadership of the African Feminist Initiative, which is a transnational platform advancing interdisciplinary research and collaboration across the continent and its diaspora.

Baderoon framed the honour as part of a much larger continuum that connects past, present and future.

“In Athlone, where I grew up, lived great intellectuals such as Archibald Campbell Mzolisa Jordan and Phyllis Ntantala — thinkers who created spaces of debate, imagination, and scholarship,” she said.

“Their legacy connects places, generations, and ideas … Today, we are all part of that continuum.”

Baderoon called on graduates to resist conformity, embrace uncertainty and act with courage and imagination.

“You are not here to be an afterthought of someone else’s thinking,” she said. “You are here because there is something only you can contribute.”

For Baderoon, it was a moment of humility and reverence. “This honorary doctorate is the greatest honour of my academic life. To the place and people who gave me life, breath and inspiration — I carry you within me.”