He was a suit-and-tie-wearing man, he loved reading newspapers and socially he enjoyed playing soccer. But his life was dedicated to his family and the church.
That is how journalist and author Lesley Mofokeng describes his grandfather, Ntate Moholo Mongangane Mofokeng.
Lesley has just finished a typical weekday gym session and he sits down to talk to Drum about his latest book, The Man Who Shook Mountains: In the Footsteps of My Ancestors. The book is about his paternal grandfather, Mongangane, which loosely translated means the stubborn one.
As the tenth of 16 grandchildren, Lesley was raised by his grandparents and although he often heard people in their North West community tell tales of his grandfather, he never quite knew what he fuss was about.
“I know there was something special about him, but I never knew what it was. Growing up, people would often talk about his role in building schools, hospitals and churches, but as a child I didn't pay attention.”
But his grandfather had unconsciously instilled in him values that he would carry into his life as an adult.
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His mother was a nurse, based in Natalspruit at the time, and his father was a driver for a pharmaceuticals company in Germiston. So baby Lesley was handed over to his grandparents to raise when he was only six months old.
Lesley has now released a book that has been in the works since he went to Wits University to do his Masters degree.
“After I finished school there was no money, so I went to the North West University (where he obtained his BA Communication Honours). But in 2019, I went to do my Master's at Wits, 10 years after Ntate Moholo had passed away.
“It was a big deal to me because I know he would have walked past Wits and wished he could attend, but he couldn’t because he only had standard six and was a labourer. So he wished his descendants would go. Being at Wits was very special to me because I proposed his life story as my research. I did a lot of traveling for the research and in 2021, I got my results saying I had passed. After graduation I immediately started working on the book, turning the research into a book.”
His travels and research took him everywhere from the Free State and Lesotho, all the way to Paris, not Parys.
Lesley’s book is not only an ode to his grandfather, but it also explores the politics and history of the Dutch Reformed Church’s Black constituency.
“I went to Paris and I visited the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society whose offices are still standing from the 1800s. But I got a lot more when I was in Lesotho, I spent a lot of time at the Leselinyana la Lesotho, which is an old newspaper that had so much valuable information.”
It was while doing all this research about his grandfather and the church that a church elder told him that when his grandfather gave sermons, he was “capable of shaking mountains”.
It was his grandfather who taught him everything, from riding a bike and driving a car to being a man of integrity.
“He loved to read newspapers, The Star was his favourite. He loved to travel, he was very prayerful. He was also very strong physically, I think that is why he lived until he was 95. I can distinctly remember him carrying heavy things and having very prominent veins on his hands.
“He had bronchitis and hypertension and whenever he was not feeling well, he would diagnose himself and go to his doctor. But instead of just listening to the doctor, he would give the doctor the diagnosis and tell him what injection he should give, and funny enough, the doctor would oblige. In hindsight, I also think he was addicted to Panado, because he would pop them like Smarties just before bed. That is just the kind of man he was.
“I remember him driving his Ford Cortina and he was always committed to the church and service to the community. We would often be moved from our beds just so strangers could have a place to sleep. He was a very generous man.”
His grandfather’s currency was never material things, Lesley says.
“He was often generous to a fault. There was a time he had cattle and goats, then he had sheep too. But he always gave them away. By the time he died, I think there was only one cow. I do not subscribe to that school of thought, I believe in creating generational wealth and you do that by holding on to stuff.
“I mean, I give, don’t get me wrong. But I also believe in leaving a tangible legacy for the next generation.”
When he is not preserving his family history, Lesley has his head buried in research.
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“I do some work for the South African Music Awards and I am also an associate lecturer at Wits. I will soon be traveling to Poland for the Literary Journalism Conference where I will be presenting a paper. When I am done there, I will teach at a university in France for a few days where my focus will be on Sol Plaatjie.
“People forget about black journalism. I think it is important to remember the pioneers and trailblazers like Sol Plaatjie, Helen Jabavu and Tiyo Soga. Black people had their own newspapers and they were fighting against colonialism. People think our history begins with apartheid.”
You can read an excerpt from Lesley's book here.
