By Isaac Akugizibwe

KIU Main Campus-Dr.Emmanuel Taban is expected to speak to students from South Sudan on Saturday,20th August 2022, according to Ajah Tabitha Chol the president of the KIU South Sudanese Students Association.

Ajah said that Dr. Taban was invited because of his education background, personality and extraordinary accomplishments as a doctor and author.

"Dr Taban is the best doctor who treated Covid 19 patients in South Africa and has inspired many people through his book, 'The Boy Who Never gave up,"' that's why we invited him," she disclosed.

"We hope he will be able to inspire students from South Sudan and the entire KIU fraternity. I would love to see as many students come to listen to him. I am sure they won't remain the same," she said.

Dr. Emmanuel Taban became more popular in South Africa and South Sudan when he won the 2021 person of the year and the best-selling book Awards.

WHO IS DOCTOR EMMANUEL TABAN?

Early life.

Also known by his full name, Emmanuel Malish Taban – He is a South Sudanese doctor living in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Taban was born in the year 1977 in the war-torn Southern part of Sudan, the current day Republic of South Sudan. His parents were small subsistence farmers who later fled to the bush.

In 1991, at age 14, Taban had to experience the first of the many hardships that were looming ahead of him. He was arrested for the first time by forces loyal to the government of Khartoum because he stood up for a captured Catholic priest.                           

In 1994, 17-year-old Emmanuel Malish Taban was once again arrested and tortured by the intelligence military agents who suspected him of being a rebel sympathizer and spy. He was afterwards released, initially crossing into Eritrea via the border town of Gadarif to seek asylum but unluckily he was subsequently arrested for illegal entry but soon released.

Within Eritrea, Taban met some Catholic Charities and South Sudanese living in Asmara. They helped him to enter Ethiopia. From there he travelled south by bus and on foot through the East African territories of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique to reach South Africa.

EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY.

Dr. Taban received his early elementary education at a Catholic Mission School back in Southern Sudan. However, due to the numerous turbulent encounters, his studies were disrupted until 1995, while in South Africa, Taban was helped by two(2) South Sudanese missionaries working in South Africa. They provided money to pay for his secondary and university studies.

He went to the Medical University of Southern Africa (MEDUNSA, 2004), University of Pretoria(2011) and University of Witwatersrand. He also studied pulmonology at Hermes University System in Europe and earned a diploma in endobronchial ultrasound and Lung cancer staging at the University of Amsterdam(2018).

Also in 2018, he received another  (SA) pulmonology certificate from the College of Medicine.

HEROIC TABAN

If there’s one thing the whole World remembers so vividly about 2020, it’s the tragic deaths and suffering brought about by the killer Corona Virus Disease.  The virus ravaged our planet and stalled normal life leaving the entire human race helplessly praying for a saviour to salvage the situation.

That was when concerned individuals like Dr. Taban rose to the challenge.  He saved many lives of COVId patients through a new procedure he invented, known as “Flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy”. Here, a pulmonologist uses the technique to suck out the mucus that has collected in patients' air passages, enabling them to breathe. The majority of COVId patients, over 90% of them survived.

“Dr. Emmanuel Taban's extraordinary story and never–say–die spirit has become a source of great inspiration for millions of young Africans who find themselves in often hopeless situations.”  said The New Africa Magazine.

ACCOLADES

In 2021, Dr. Emmanuel Taban was named as one of the most influential Africans of 2020 by the London – based New Africa Magazine.

He also published his Autobiography under the title, “The Boy who never gave up”