The passing on of Professor John Bardill last week drives me back 48 years into my country, the Mountain Kingdom.
This is where the late John Bardill cut his teeth as a lecturer of political science. I was a first-year student at the National University of Lesotho and for four years, until 1980, when I completed my junior degree, Bardill had not only lectured me, but was ever present in the community and activities of the university. His primary task was to lecture.
Then smoking was allowed, so the lecture theatre, which was always full as he plied his trade and conscientised us through the works of Magubane, Wolpe and Legassick, through the works of Nkurumah, Nyerere’s Ujamaa, Kenyatta’s Mau Mau into Marx and Lenin’s work, was how the youthful, chain-smoking Bardill would take our attentive hours.
The ever-present African Studies by Professor Joan Khabele completed the circle. Ms Moloi took us in English, reading and learning skills.
I was a bit odd in my selection of subjects, which put me under pressure for exam schedules because my majors were economics and statistics, but Bardill’s inspiring work of political science took me into some modules where I had no mutual overlaps with students in my chosen majors.
I was in sociology led by Professor Milazi, human geography led by Professor Schmidt and physical geography by Dr Marufu.
The contrast between the sciences, social sciences and humanities as one traversed from one lecture to the other were educative. In mathematics, Doctor Zepp took us through imaginary numbers, a field of maths which is calculus, and Doctor Smongerere took us in algebra.
Bijoy Threstha took us in development economics, Doctor Ketso drilled us in labour economics, while Professor Birmingham, and later in third year Professor Lane, took us in micro economics, while Dr Sinyowera took us in macro economics.
Dr Winston Klaas took us in statistics, while Dr Hilary Southall took us in operations research and Dr Roger Southall took us in political economy. Dr E A Ngara was in his own class and lectured us in the use of the English language, and this was compulsory for all students.
The exciting part was when the Lecturers Eleven took on the Student Eleven in soccer. Bardill was always there, energetic and doing his part. He was not so skilled in soccer, but he was ever present in the first eleven.
The comparison is a bit unfair when one brings in the likes of other lecturers, such as Dr Strambino, Dr Williams and Dr Milazi, who did not only show their prowess, but also joined the university football club, Rovers, which played in the Lesotho National Soccer League and helped build the Roma community.
Among the not-so-classy soccer players were lecturers such as Professor Roger Southall, Dr Mudenge and others. So Bardill was not alone in that class that faded in the Lecturers Eleven; others that also featured included administrators such as the late Mr Buku the registrar of the university, whose pot belly would cushion his fall.
Bardill was central in the creation of the move for Rovers to be in the national league and immersed himself, soul and all, in supporting the club. He was a member of the community.
Among the students that Bardill chiselled are the late Ajulu Rok, who was a known factor in South Africa’s academia. The inspiration from Bardill played itself out not only in class, but more importantly in the general debates among students and visiting general lectures delivered by outsiders.
There the ANC-BNP aligned likes of the late Gwentshe Mzimkulu, the late Ajulu Rock, and my dear friend Primus Hango of Namibia, and Sehoai Santho with whom we exchange extensively on current developments, vs the PAC-BCP aligned Student Liberation Front of Toka Molapo, the late Jerry Modisane, Ladu Gore, who is a current politician in South Sudan, and I, played out extensively on campus. Our unity of purpose besides the internal intellectual and political divisions were decisive against apartheid and Bardill sewed the seeds of our level of consciousness.
When the news of his passing spread on Friday, our social platforms mourned. I was reminded of our banter with Ajulu Rock in 1993 on the eve of the demise of apartheid when we met for the first time in more than a decade. We were at the Pretoria Hof.
My first question to him was: “Comrade Rok, I want your thesis on the Rise and Fall of Mokhehle. I told you in 1980 already that Mokhehle was on the rise and your thesis will bite dust.”
We laughed deleteriously as we enjoyed our reunion. May the bereaved family of Professor Bardill, his wife Dr Nosipho January Bardill and children be consoled and May His Soul Rest in Peace.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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