Sowetan 19 June 2003 - Green fingers in a theatre
Sowetan 19 June 2003 - Green fingers in a theatre
The
writer is a freelance journalist
IN
1967, a human heart was transplanted, opening a new era in surgery. One,
the team leader, ended up rich and famous another, a key member of that
team, had to pretend to be a gardener. Now, fame is finally knocking
on the forgotten hero's door. Tomorrow, Hamilton Naki (78), will receive
an honorary degree in medicine at the University of Cape Town.
Professor Christian Barnard secured a place in medical history when he - in a
time when heart transplants were in the realms of fantasy-performed the first
on a human.
Images of the handsome young surgeon were cabled around the world and Barnard
himself marvelled at the pace with which he became an international celebrity.
None of the journalists and photographers who for weeks crammed into Groote Schuur
Hospital in Cape Town paid any attention to the black man often at Barnard's
side.
After all, it was the height of apartheid and they had no reason to believe
that he could have been anything else than a menial worker.
And
indeed, would they have asked Naki,he
would have told them that he was a hospital gardener.
Hamilton
Naki was born to parents in small
village of
Ngcangane
in Eastern Cape.
After
making it through primary school, he hitch-hiked to Cape Town to
look for work. At the age of 14, the University of Cape Town hired him to maintain
the tennis lawns.
A decade later, in 1954, Naki was asked to help with the laboratory animals.
He quickly progressed from cleaning cages and worked his way up in the labs to
become even more
nimble-fingered (the professor's own words) than Barnard himself.
His
dextrous technical skills proved invaluable in the run-up to the
procedure, and without the help of Hamilton Naki, history might not have
been
written on Groote Schuur Hospital on a December day in 1967.
Due
to the then political dispensation Naki was barred both from studying
to be a doctor and from the whites-only operating theatre.
Officially
he had to remain a humble gardener and his success as one of a pioneering
surgeon's leading assistants was not mentioned.
"Those days you had to accept what they said as there was no other way you
could go because it was the law of the land," Naki recently explained
to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in an interview.
It has taken four decades for the truth about Naki's role in the miraculous operation
on Louis Washkansky (who lived a few days), Dr Phil Blaiberg (who lived years),
and later many others, to emerge.
It
was the late Barnard himself who tipped off filmmaker Dirk de Villiers,
and in December last year Naki received the highest honour South Africa
can bestow its citizens; the National Order of Mapungubwe.
De Villiers is now working on a television documentary of Hamilton Naki's life,
and in the pre production phase of a biographical feature film called Barnard,
Naki will be playing an important role.
Funding provided, the film will get worldwide exposure and feature
some prominent Hollywood stars. Naki is pleased with the developments.
For many years, he doubted
that he would ever "see the light", as he puts it.
" It is like a dream to be recognised at last," he said this
week from his home in Langa township.
His
employment record, however, remains unchanged and his 50 years ostensibly
as a gardener qualify for nothing more than a State pension of R760
a month.
Although not bitter and claiming that money doesn't matter, Naki who
admits to being penniless, regrets that none of his children have followed
in his footsteps
as he could not afford to pay for decent education.
Today, he confesses only to one personal desire. He wants to return to his rural
home in Ngcangane in December.
"But there is no road, only a footpath, and I'm no longer fit
to walk a long distance," he says in a worried voice.
Still
he does not regard his belated recognition as a road to riches. If
any money comes through he would use it to establish a bursary foundation
to benefit poor children.
" I would like it a lot if the young generation could find inspiration
in my work. Our country needs more doctors, especially from the disadvantaged--community," he
says.
"Look at me -- it can happen!" Judging from the attention
the story of the forgotten
hero is attracting from media in Europe and
the United States, Naki
is set to serve as an inspiration far beyond the borders of South Africa.
When
he receives his honourary degree tomorrow - from the very same university
where he enrolled as a gardener more than half a century ago - he
will be accompanied by a sizeable crowd of local and international
journalists
as well as dignitaries such as the university vice chancellor Graca
Machel and Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane.
The time has clearly come for a story perhaps even more remarkable than the
one from Cape Town that amazed the world in 1967.
Source
The Sowetan 19 June 2003
