Cradle

Phillip Tobias passed away in 2012 aged 87. Lucille Davie was lucky enough to sit down with him in 2009 and chat about his remarkable life. Below is an article she wrote after the in-depth interview. It was originally published on the City of Joburg's website on 19 November 2009. Click here to view more of Davie's work. The image above shows the Tobias bust at the Sterkfontein Caves.

What does Phillip Tobias daydream about, I ask? About things he would still like to do. But at 84, it would be unrealistic, he says.

“I suppose when I think back over my own past and my family, my regret is that I had never married and had children because I used to idolise the very idea of the family,” he says.

But then he has 10 000 children, “bright, eager-eyed young students” who he has taught over almost 50 years at Wits.
 
“In a very real sense I have passed on my legacy to them, not biologically, not by my DNA, but as tutor, mentor, exemplar and friend,” he smiles gently.

Tobias, professor emeritus of anatomy and human biology at Wits University, respected palaeontologist, and one of South Africa’s most distinguished scientists, has lots of good memories to daydream over.

“I like to think that I have had a moderately good impact on some of them [his students], and bless them, they’re always telling me this when I meet them in Edmonton in Canada, Sydney, Nairobi, Hong Kong, New York and Cambridge.”

Tobias...

In the small village of Issiglio, in the Canavese district, lying between the beautiful valley of Chiusella and the main town of that region, Ivrea, Piemonte, on the 6 September 1857 Guglielmo Martinaglia was born. After completing his military training with the Brigata Alpina, he, like so many Italians during those hard and difficult times, chose to seek his fortune in foreign lands.

Guglielmo Martinaglia and wife Maria Magdalena du Plooy

In 1877 he arrived by sea on the island of Reunion, in the Indian Ocean, where he joined the specialized engineering team from Piemonte, who, together with 4000 other foreign workers of different nationalities, were building the island’s first railway line (1877-1882). The Piemontese were given the task of building the railway line at La Montagne, by constructing a tunnel through the mountain and building large stone railway bridges, which were extremely successful and to the liking of the English chief engineer.

The dynamiting of the tunnels through the mountain at La Montagne did not go without incidents. Five Italians were killed by an explosion and lie buried on the island.

From Reunion, Guglielmo Martinaglia ventured further and in 1879 landed in Durban, Natal, the main seaport on the Eastern Coast of South Africa which was at this stage British controlled Natal, now the province of Kwa Zulu-Natal. At the time...