Jotello Festiri Soga

Jotello Festiri Soga was born in 1865 at the Mgwali Mission, in the former Transkei, South Africa as the fourth son of Reverend Tiyo Soga and Janet Soga and died on December 6, 1906 in Amalinda, East London, South Africa. Jotello was the first South African veterinarian to become a qualified veterinarian who played a leading role in eradicating rinderpest.

Early career

In 1886, after earning his degree in veterinary medicine, with a gold medal distinction in botany, Jotello Soga returned to the Cape Colony. On July 9, 1892, Jotello visited Scotland and married Catherine Watson Chalmers. Three daughters, Catherine, Doris and Margaret were born from this marriage. In November 1889 he was appointed a veterinary surgeon for the colonial government. He was posted to Fort Beaufort and was also responsible for veterinary services for Victoria East, Stockenström and neighbouring districts. His immediate task was to inoculate against contagious lung-sickness, which was decimating cattle in South Africa. He conducted his own inoculation experiments on lung-sickness and his vaccinating method was accepted as standard thereafter, according to Heloise Heyne, of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute who has written about Dr. Soga’s career.

Eradication of Rinderpest

The second phase of his career began when the threat of rinderpest was on the horizon in the early 1890’s. To the north, cattle were becoming sick and dying by the thousands. “Like some belated biblical plague of Egypt . . . it left a trail of bleaching bones and poverty,” said one historian of that period. Dr. Soga was among the first to warn of the dangers rinderpest posed to the Cape Colony. “Our new Colonial enemy is rinderpest,” he wrote in 1892, “Lung Sickness and Redwater are simple fools to it.”