Mansi Goyal

Mama Gugu

Mama Gugu is a major force in our world when we go to University of Zululand. Because of her, we stayed comfortably in guesthouses, were able to see President Zuma speak and have lunch with him, and have problems handled and solved.

We all had different levels of interaction with her, but we all felt the same warmth in her presence. She moves swiftly, works endlessly to support us and others, and loves us, not as guests, but as her children. It was the seemingly small things she did for us, like giving Rahsaan her graduation sticker when his was lost, arranging a Zulu class for Zakiyah, driving us 10 feet down to our houses so we didn’t have to walk, taking us to the sport shop the morning of our departure to get us all UZ scarves. After spending some time with Mama Gugu, I too embraced her spirit, as she would jokingly call me, “the mathematician with a heart.”

Mama Gugu is representative of the kind of spirit that we experience everyday, at every level, in South Africa. You can barely think that she was ever subject to the harshness of apartheid. We studied South African history at the University of Michigan before coming here, but it has been interacting with people like Mama Gugu who have made this remarkable history come alive for us. She is a true reflection of South Africa’s beauty and grace, and we appreciate all of her.

Mansi Goyal – Teammate Pedagogy of Action 2009