MY AFRICAN ODYSSEY
IT WAS something as simple as a Coca-Cola bottle that changed the trajectory of his life and set him on the road to becoming a celebrated doctor who now harnesses his knowledge to make a difference to Covid-19 patients staring death in the face.
“Made in South Africa” the label on the Coke bottle said – and with just a few hundred rands in his pocket, he made his way across Africa alone, fleeing his war-torn homeland and eventually arriving at his destination.
He was only 17 years old.
Fast forward two-and-a-half decades and Pretoria-based Dr Emmanuel Taban is one of the country’s top pulmonologists – one who found himself making the news at the height of SA’s battle against the
