Name: Dr Tozama Qwebani-Ogunleye
Role/Occupation: Project Director, Vaal University of Technology, Dihlare Remedy Pty Ltd.
Country: South Africa
Dr Tozama Qwebani-Ogunleye is the Project Director, Vaal University of Technology, Dihlare Remedy Pty Ltd. At Dihlare Remedy, they are a bridging knowledge and innovation gap that is related to the product development and commercialisation of Traditional Medicine. The main aim is to make African Traditional Medicine easily accessible and recognised alongside mainstream healthcare. Qwebani-Ogunleye is one of the pioneers in South Africa who are involved in the development of quality control protocols for traditional medicines and the development of herbal formulations based on indigenous knowledge gained while working alongside the community. Qwebani-Ogunleye says that being part of something bigger than herself motivates her, “Traditional Medicine is only beginning to be acceptable as an alternative health system in South Africa...Research, innovation and commercialization will increase the potential of African Traditional Medicine management and treatment of priority communicable and non-communicable diseases.”
Qwebani-Ogunleye's journey started with her love for mathematics, “my adolescent afternoons were spent preparing for the Maths 24 School Challenge… My passion for maths, along with my family’s support, culminated in me representing my school at a national level at the Maths 24 School Challenge.” Her passion for science started after she read about penicillin and how it was discovered by chance, “I started to imagine myself in the lab and wearing safety glasses and in search of a cure for something,” she explains. She would later get an opportunity to represent South Africa at a youth science event in Vienna, Austria; where she would meet young scientists from all around the world and rub shoulders with Austrian and South African dignitaries. This she believes set her on her path to being a scientist.
Her arrival at the University of Cape Town (UCT) was a bitter sweet experience. Sweet because she was able to see and learn new things; and bitter because of the realisation of the lack of science laboratory facilities she was exposed to at high school. Most of her colleagues were well acquainted with the tools in the laboratories, tools which until then she had only seen as a picture in a textbook, “I had never seen a microscope before, let alone touched one or used one. I spent the whole of the first year trying to catch up with the rest of my classmates…” She completed both her undergraduate and Masters degrees at UCT, followed by a PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand through a studentship with CSIR. She then worked at CSIR for 6 years, TUT for 2 years and is currently based at VUT, during which she volunteered in many projects that involved the youth, “the youth is the hope of our nation and I would like to continue to add my positive contribution in youth empowerment,” she elaborates.
Qwebani-Ogunleye has thus far enjoyed her experience as a woman in the STEM space, despite many viewing her position as a problematic juxtaposition, “I am an African woman in an African country where modern ideas fight with the traditional for space in an ever-changing society… I choose to see it as an opportunity. I have looked for opportunities within my challenges.” She feels that one of the most significant parts of her career is gaining the vast knowledge that the traditional health practitioners have with regards to indigenous plants. “It is remarkable and laudable. They might not know the scientific name/ English name of the herbs but when you speak in our vernacular with them you start to appreciate the wisdom that has been passed from generation to the next in our communities,” she elaborates.
Qwebani-Ogunleye feels that perhaps gender discrimination is not out of intent but rather out of ignorance, “the challenge is that gender equality is seen as a nice to have than a human right. To drink fresh water, to breath in clean air, to go to school or to apply for a job without prejudice are all fundamental rights.”
Her advice to young girls is to do pure mathematics at high school as she finds that there are a number of girls “interested in Science after matric only to find out that they enrolled for maths literacy while at high school. You do have great potential and can be what you aspire to be if you are willing to put the effort and ask for help when necessary it is possible.”
She believes that Africa is a land of opportunity and that is progressing in STEM where research integrity, research morality and ethics are observed and practiced. She is grateful for the Biodiversity Act of 2004 and the type of informed consent allowed in country in terms of research, “it shows that we are ready to protect what is ours while also being globally relevant.” The main challenge according to Qwebani-Ogunleye is that implementation occurs at a slow pace as if change is evitable; and that we still require innovative ways to bridge the gender gap in STEM.
Read more about Tozama Qwebani-Ogunleye, who combines the old with the new, the traditional with the modern on a daily basis in an informative interview below.
Tozama Qwebani-Ogunleye was interviewed by Dhruti Dheda, the founder of the African Steminist on behalf of Geeky Girl Reality. The full interview can be found here.
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