| Urhobo
Historical
Society |
Professor Matthew
Brafe Scott-Emuakpor
PhD (1935-2011)
Remembered
By Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor, PhD, MD
Professor Matthew Brafe Scott-Emuakpor, B.Sc (Hons) London; PhD Cantab.
March 14, 1935 - April 12, 2011
University Educator, Biologist for all seasons
We are human
because we die.
Without death we will be something other than humans. Therefore death
defines
our humanness. These days, it seems death surrounds me and whispering
to me,
�Live because I am coming some day�.
On the 7th
of
February, I had the misfortune of losing one of the most influential
people in
my life, my eldest brother and the Patriarch of the Scott-Emuakpor
family,
Chief Lawrence Enamrerehor Scott-Emuakpor. Exactly 9 weeks and 6 hours
later,
on April 12, 2011, I lost another very influential people in my life,
my older
brother and Cambridge University educated Professor of Botany,
Professor
Matthew Brafe Scott-Emuakpor. It is customary to add, �After a brief
illness�
but, in my opinion, that phrase diminishes the awesomeness of death and
prevents one from coming to term with the deep sorrow that death
brings. As I
wallow in this deep sorrow, I am once again reminded of the truth in Khalil Gibran�s poem On
Joy and Sorrow:
�Your
JOY is your SORROW unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your
LAUGHTER rises
was oftentimes filled with your TEARS.� (Capitalized
(emphasis
is
mine.)
May God unmask this
sorrow
and show us laughter from this well of tears. This is my prayer in this
time of
great difficulty.
Professor M.B.
Scott-Emuakpor
was born on March 14, 1935 to Chief Scott Johnson Masoro Emuakpor of Evwreni, in southern Urhoboland and in modern
Ughelli North Local Government area, and
Madam Janet Irorohwo Scott-Emuakpor (nee Ajogri) also of Evwreni. By
this
birth, he became the fourth son and child of our father and first son
and child
of his mother. He attended the Church Missionary Society (CMS)
elementary
school in Warri and, in 1949, entered the Urhobo College, Effurun. His
career
as a student of Urhobo College was marked by many distinctions. Aside
from
being an outstanding student academically, he was a nationally
acclaimed
student-athlete. He was a Greer Cup champion (National inter-secondary
schools
athletic competition) in both High Jump and Triple Jump and, in 1952,
he broke
the High Jump record, set by Dr. Garrett 13 years earlier, when he
cleared 6
feet, 3 � inches. The Nigerian Sunday
Times paper that carried the news of this accomplishment in its
front page
remained my companion and my constant source of inspiration for many
years
before I lost it to wear and tear. The following year, while training
for
another �Track and Field� competition, he accidentally scratched his
left
Achilles with the spikes of his jumping shoes. The wound became
infected and
very painful, making him to withdraw from the competition. I felt so
cheated by
that incident that I always remind myself, till this day, to be angry
with all
the other athletes who must have supernaturally caused this injury to
my
brother.
He graduated from
Urhobo
College in 1954, passing the Cambridge School Certificate examination
in
Grade1, and proceeded to Lagos in January of 1955. He lived with our
older
brother, Dr. Dia Scott-Emuakpor, and began work in the Federal Ministry
of
Information, an outfit that was to be directed years later by our
eldest
brother, Chief Lawrence E. Scott-Emuakpor. He worked at the Ministry of
Information for 2� years before gaining admission to the only
University in
Nigeria at that time, The University College Ibadan. He studied Botany
and
graduated with top honors in 1961. He was so focused in his academic
work that
he was never to participate in sports again competitively. Brother
MBSE, as we
fondly referred to him in the family, was very intolerant of and, in
fact,
hated mediocrity. He believed that the quality of a person�s life is
directly
proportional to his commitment to excellence and that he really did not
have
the kind of time needed to excel in athletics. This was the reason he
gave for
giving up athletics altogether.
Following his
graduation from
the University College Ibadan in June of 1961, he proceeded to
Cambridge
University in England in August of 1961 and was resident in St. John�s
College
of the university. At Cambridge, he developed fascination for Microbial
Genetics and began working on the behavior of chromatids during
cell-division
in the red bread mold, Neurospora crassa. His work contributed
enormously to
the elucidation of the steps involved in the exchange of genetic
materials during
gamete formation. For his work, he received the Doctor of Philosophy
degree
(Ph.D. Cantab) from Cambridge University in June of 1964. My own
academic
interest and work in Human Biochemical Genetics was significantly
influenced by
my brother�s accomplishments. By this accomplishment, he became the
first
African to be awarded an advanced degree in Genetics and, thus the
first
African Geneticist.
I myself got into
the
University of Nigeria in 1962 to study Zoology. Every textbook that I
used in
the course of my studies was sent to me by Brother MBSE from Cambridge.
I
bragged about my modern state-of-the-craft texts and almost became
intellectual
elite in the process. Thanks to my brother�s nurturing and inspiration,
when I
was named the best graduating student in the sciences, it did not come
as a
surprise to those who knew the secret of my academic success. Soon
after he
returned from the U.K., my first holiday from the university was spent
with
him. My younger brother, younger sister and I had a �heck of a time�
with
Brother MBSE, leading us in endless intellectual discussions. He left
his brand
new Peugeot 404 car with us as we made ourselves the spoilt siblings of
a
serious-minded elite lecturer. At that time, he was dating a young
woman who I
thought was the most beautiful woman I ever met. Her beauty was not
just in her
looks, but in her mind and her overall carriage. Although no one asked
my
opinion, I felt that my brother deserved no less, because this woman
always
appeared, at least to me, as one of those happily created beings who
please
effortlessly and who take life easy and gracefully. He
was
to marry this elegant woman, Ms.
Adejoke Craig, a few years later, the only marriage he ever contracted
throughout his rich and productive life.
In September of
1964, he
returned to the University College, Ibadan (now the University of
Ibadan) to
begin a long and productive career as a University Educator, first as a
Research Fellow, then as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor.
Professor
Scott-Emuakpor had two passions, finding solutions to common human
problems
through research and the teaching of Genetics. These passions were
largely
instrumental in his decision to transfer his services from the
Department of
Botany in the Faculty of Science to the Department of Medical
Microbiology in
the Faculty of Medicine of the university. He very quickly began to
look into
the nagging problem of post-operative wound infections at the
University
Teaching Hospital (UCH). Within a couple of years, he not only
described in
painstaking details the organisms responsible for �wound sepsis� at the
hospital, but also recommended simple hygienic measures that can be
employed to
prevent its occurrence. Through the findings from his work, specific
therapeutic measures were developed to effectively treat infected
post-operative wounds at the UCH in Ibadan and elsewhere in Nigeria and
in the
tropics.
Professor
Scott-Emuakpor
loved his work at UCH, but missed the teaching of Genetics. He had
designed
several undergraduate Genetics courses which his circumstances at the
hospital
prevented him from teaching. When the opportunity came for him to
return to
Botany in 1970, he did so primarily to satisfy his other passion, the
teaching
of Genetics. One year later in 1971, I myself joined him in Ibadan
after I
accepted a job as Lecturer in the Department of Zoology of the faculty
of
Science and the Department of Chemical pathology of the faculty of
Medicine of
the University. My home Department was Zoology and my brother and I
began to redesign
the undergraduate Genetics courses which we taught together. I remember
him
during my first few months in Ibadan carrying my PhD thesis everywhere
he went
to. He explained to me that he was reading it in details hence he
carried it
with him always, but I knew better. He was so proud that his younger
brother
had followed in his footsteps that he carried that thesis as a
testimony of his
enormous influence in my own academic career. He was naturally and
generously
biased in his description of my accomplishments. My four years with him
in the
Faculty of Science was very rich emotionally for me and very rewarding
intellectually. As I embrace the torturous sorrow of my brother�s
death, the
thoughts of those years bring joy to my heart. Khalil Gibran is right.
Those who did not
take the
trouble of knowing my brother, Matthew, often labeled him as
�snobbish�. This
is because of his dislike for over-celebration and his love for
simplicity. He
will not visit people, sometimes even if you invited him because he did
not
want to be considered rude for not accepting items for entertaining
guests. In
the African culture, that behavior is not looked upon very well. His
daily
routine was critically regimented and he hated nothing more than to
deviate
from it. He had a time to drink water daily, a time to drink juices or
tea and
a time to snack on his favorite fruit, Paw-Paw. Anything that
interfered with
this daily routine offended him immensely. Most activities of his daily
living,
he liked to perform himself. Therefore, he cooked most of his meals
himself,
though he had house-help ( I passionately hate the term �servants�)
paid to
cook; he did some of his own laundry by hand himself, though he had
house-help
paid to do it; and he did his grocery shopping himself, though he could
send
anyone to do it for him. He was a very simple man who did not like many
changes
in his life and who did not like to explore too many new things.
Those who took the
trouble of
knowing my brother see him differently. If you spent a quiet moment
with him,
you find that he exuded warmth and that he was very knowledgeable about
many
subjects, ranging from the Art to any of the Sciences. He was very
eloquent in
and comfortable with discussing any subject and could be very engaging.
In
spite of his enormous self-control and discipline, he had definite and
strong
opinions about world events, particularly those related to conflicts,
and he
could be very animated in expressing them. My brother had a strong
personal
magnetism and I believe it is because of his consuming sincerity.
Matthew Scott-Emuakpor spent the later part of his academic
career doing
things he loved. He spent a sabbatical year in Calabar helping to
develop
curriculum for the teaching of Genetics. He spent a good portion of his
post-retirement years, on a contractual basis, at Lagos State
University
helping to develop curriculum and teaching of Genetics. One would have
expected
that a man of my brother�s distinction, a pioneer in an important
scientific
field, would meet no difficulties in his career path. The truth was
that he met
many difficulties professionally and, in the process, he taught me that
a �Man
of Character� finds a special attractiveness in difficulty because, as
Charles
de Gaulle put it, it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that a
man can
realize his potentialities.
I can not
sufficiently
describe what a tremendously difficult time this has been for the
Scott-Emuakpor family. Sorrow has taken hold of our entire psyche and
it has
been very difficult to shake it lose. For my brother, MBSE, every human
experience, good or bad, is part of our being and he would have
counseled that
shaking loose this sorrow is a bad idea. Rather he would recommend that
we
allow this sorrow to take permanent residence in our soul so as to
�ENLARGE�
it. This is the legacy of my brother, whose death on Tuesday the 12th
of April, 2011, I regard as a night�s sleep. For, as Martin Luther put
it, �as
through sleep all weariness and faintness pass away and cease and the
powers of
the spirit come back again so that in the morning we arise fresh and
strong and
joyous; so at the last day, we arise again as if we had only slept a
night and
shall be fresh and strong�. My brother, as promised in the Scriptures,
shall
arise again and shall be fresh and strong.