Dr Iqbal Survé pays tribute to Jazz Legends Louis and Mpumi Moholo

IQBAL SURVÉ

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THERE are some people you meet in life who leave a lasting impression—not because of their fame, but because of the spirit they carry. Louis Moholo and his wife Mpumi were such people.

Gentle, principled, and full of life, they were more than musical legends. They were fellow South Africans in exile, friends of the struggle, and vessels of a sound that carried our country’s deepest hopes and truths.

In January 1989, Amnesty International invited me to deliver one of the keynote addresses at a global conference of Doctors Against Torture, held at UNESCO in Paris. This was in recognition of the work I was doing at the time with detainees and political prisoners in South Africa.

As part of the discussions at that conference—and in a particularly meaningful meeting I had with the former First Lady of France, Madame Danielle Mitterrand—we explored how to isolate the then South African Medical Association from the World Medical Association.