TESSA DOOMS | Trailblazer Mckaiser mainstreamed marginalised identities in public space

Author, broadcaster, championship debater and all-round public intellectual Eusebius McKaiser has died. For many people who followed McKaiser's work over the years it is unthinkable that his booming voice is silenced, his sharp wit stopped, and his commanding presence is no more.

Even on the day McKaiser died he was hard at work shaping public discourse. He literally died a soldier in the area of public debate, with his boots on. Evidence not only of his extraordinary work ethic, creativity and capacity, but more importantly his commitment to building a better future, a better SA. McKaiser was a passionate patriot. He lived everyday thinking about how to use his varied gifts and abilities to champion change and an SA we all deserve.

Since hearing of McKaiser's untimely passing my heart has broken many times. Given my limited social interactions with him I have been caught wholly off-guard by how hurt I am. Each time I hear different people eulogise McKaiser, I find new reasons to mourn his passing. He was truly many thing to many people. I have in his death realised just how much his life meant to SA.

McKaiser was a teacher. Whether loved or hated he could never be ignored. He was confrontational. Intentionally prickly and determined to make us uncomfortable. He believed that fundamentally democracy thrives on the ability to have healthy disagreements.

As a listener of his first radio show on PowerFM many years ago McKaiser first taught me that for a divided nation like SA to have any chance of healing and unity, we must have the ability to deeply disagree with each other and still move forward.

Even as a lover of sport he lamented the use of the euphoria of wins by the national rugby or soccer team as tools for national building as superficial and fleeting. McKaiser knew that the real work of nation-building includes deepening the quality of our engagements.

Thus, he committed himself to the pursuit of creating spaces for difficult conversations. Conversations for sharing and ultimately learning. In creating spaces for learning he became a de facto teacher to the nation.

McKaiser was a trailblazer. In the world of broadcasting, controlled, in the main, by a small group of elite people, he carved out his own path on his own terms. Before McKaiser it was hard for young thought leaders and political commentators to imagine themselves as serious workers in the media industry. When the mainstream did not want him at their tables, McKaiser created his own, reminding us that we are not beholden to systems of power, we create them.

Listening to McKaiser on late night radio helped me as a then sociology lecturer to realise that the theories I was learning and teaching in the classroom could translate into impactful work in broader society. While I experienced academia as an echo chamber of politically correct thought, McKaiser was showing a generation of new thinkers that what we had to say was valuable beyond the walls of the academy.

He gave me the courage and the opportunity to know my voice and use it in new ways. I will be forever indebted to his life and legacy for setting such a bold example of public thought leadership.

McKaiser mainstreamed marginalised identities. While I mourn the lost of McKaiser the public intellectual, what has hurt most is the loss of a proudly coloured and openly gay man who with an undeniable intentionality represented two groups in SA society that are often unseen and largely unheard. As a coloured woman, looking at McKaiser occupy public spaces I had never dreamed of was affirming. As we reflect on his passing, I see many coloured and queer people who did not personally know McKaiser share this sentiment.

Representation matters. Seeing ourselves in the many faces of McKaiser has given us courage. The life of McKaiser was a constant reminder that we all have a place in this society. The death of Mckaiser is a call to fill the large void his presence has left, take up more space and never allow anyone to minimise or silence our voices.

Rest in power Eusebius McKaiser. Thank you for representing us so well.