Introduction

The past is the present time of the future. Paradoxically, going back to the future is a journey traversed in time, facilitated by encoding, storing and retrieving direct, indirect and observed experiences. Along the way, these seminal experiences become the historical record on whose basis the following questions provide a first-hand witness account: What happened? Where did it happen? Why did it happen? How did it happen? Some do not know what happened, some may pretend not to know what happened, while some do not even know that they have to know what happened (Zlotnik & Vansintjan, 2019).

This essay is a memorialisation (institutionalisation of memory and remembrance) of the lives and times of Dr Fabian Defu (19/06/1933–01/12/1986) and his wife, Dr Florence Barbara “Vemba” Ribeiro (03/11/1933–01/12/1986). Their story is neither a record of their personal legacy nor a bibliographic memoir of political struggles. In fact, a recounting of their lives is a fundamental essentialisation of public health as a sacrosanct requirement for human beings in any civilised society.

The essay is based on an ethnographic study undertaken through the triangulation of data-collection methods. The aim is to describe their contributions to the community public health phenomenon in as much detail as possible. To this end, the datacollection methods included an exploration of the Ribeiro archives, conversations, print and electronic media, and Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) reports. Rapport was established with a Catholic nun, Sr Evangelina, who was aware of the day-to-day accounts of the Ribeiros’ work and referred indigent children to them for support. Sr Evangelina was selected because she was very close to Dr Florence Ribeiro; they collaborated on child protection and created child recreation programmes. As Dr Fabian Ribeiro operated his film projector at the church hall on Saturdays, the children in attendance screamed with absolute delight. The nun established a state-of-the-art early childhood development centre, whose charges excelled and reached their full potential. Through conversations, she was prompted to provide lasting memory cues of some unrecorded occurrences, including the Ribeiros’ benevolence, steadfastness and work ethic. Memory tests were also used to uncover scene recognition, scene reconstruction, sentence recognition and story recall. The information obtained was corroborated by other participants in the community.