Let’s remember Judith and Fabien and celebrate their lives. Feel free to share stories and memories down below in the comment section. If you have any photos, please send it to me (00835566962) via whatsapp.
Memorial Gathering
Judith and Fabian’s Memorial gathering will be held next Sunday the 30th October at 12noon. At the Ecology Shrine. Bring your own chair, cushion and or blanket.
All welcome.
Due to load shedding and bad connectivity we will unfortunately not be able to do a live broadcast, but will do a recording and add it here after the event.
Thank you Lynn del la Motte for the beautiful painting that honours them…
This painting is called “Baboons Rule, OK?”
I painted it a few months ago and was thinking a LOT about Judith while I was painting it. Thinking of you again now, Judith, and Fabian, as you cross over the rainbow Bridge. Thank you for your friendship and all you brought to Hogsback. Love Lyn.
Eulogy for Judith and Fabien
We are here today to pay tribute to the incredible lives of both Judith and Fabien.
Judith is survived by her brother David. Judith’s sister-in-law Gail Frank and cousins Rob and Margie and Rob’s wife are present today, for this commemoration.
Fabien is survived by his Mother, Karine Saoudi, and his step-father, Mustapha Saoudi, who are with us in spirit today, and who will be watching the video we are making of this commemoration.
I have known Judith since just before 1998, when I came to meet her at the Zoology Department at Fort Hare University, to ask her about Asparagus Chicken, which I was mulling over at the time as part of my translation studies at Unisa, trying to work out whether there was such a thing as a type of chicken that lived and thrived in fields of asparagus. I got my answer when, a few days later, after Judith had invited me to dinner at her cottage on High on the Hogs, here in Hogsback, she had cooked me a whole chicken which she served with… asparagus!
That was the beginning of our beautiful friendship that, in a nutshell, was based on enjoying all sorts of people, great food and definitely chilled Sauvignon Blanc.
Judith’s utter passion for opera meant that she somehow moved in operatic and music circles, in South Africa at least. Thanks to that passion, we, her friends, benefitted from her knowledge, but also from her singing acquaintances and friends, and spent many dinners in homes and restaurants, eating to the live sound of opera. Thank you, Judith, for this. It was really special.
Judith forever had and will always be remembered for her happy demeanour, and her laugh which earned her the affectionate nickname of ‘Jolly Judith’ among her close friends. In fact, it was my partner Angus’ dad who started the whole ‘Jolly Judith’ enthusiasm, and I know Judith would have loved the fact that some 70-year old Scottish lad gave her that name, a lad who was raised only 100 km away from Lammermuir Hills, the set of Donizetti’s tragic opera, Lucia di Lammermoor.
Judith’s conversation was not only fit for high-level scientific conferences, she kept the diplomatic corps agasp with interest when she shared her theories on evolutionary biology, during our happy soirées in Pretoria and Johannesburg in the early 2000s, with that amazing passion we all know her to have. Judith was generous that way, not scared of sharing her knowledge, never belittling anyone who is not a scientist.
While her generosity was also materialistic, she wasn’t generous only to her staff, her friends and her family, as I learned recently, but she was also generous in spirit, in her openness and how she was always prepared to see the good in people and in recognising people’s core qualities.
That is why, as a primary nominator for Fabien to become a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, this year, Judith said “Dr Génin committed himself to redressing the inequalities of South Africa’s past, for which he had little personal responsibility. His deep empathy with the students’ evidently poor school preparation for university studies made him an inspiring and exciting lecturer. […] His 20-years’ experience of field work in Madagascar, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa led me to hand the direction of the field component of the African Primate Initiative for Ecology and Speciation to him”.
I can say that both Judith and Fabien had great empathy for their students. Both went out of their way to accommodate students as well as pupils to take part in educational events, like the latest one which was held in Hogsback in October 2020, on baboons.
Both Judith and Fabien had an incredible love and respect for animals. For all animals. This is something I truly loved about both of them. No animal was too small to help, save or nurture. Today the baboons have lost their champions.
My partner Angus and I met Fabien for the first time in 2008, when we welcomed him for one night, at Judith’s request, into our home in Johannesburg. Fabien had just come back from Madagascar and was on his way to Judith at Fort Hare University.
Fabien was happier when walking in nature, climbing trees, listening to the joyful sounds of life, the barks of baboons, the chirps of birds and the whistles of frogs.
On the 26th and 27th of September this year, Fabien and I took a two-day trip to Sedgefield, to start moving furniture and books to the new place where he and Judith were going to move and retire in the following days, to finally start writing that book Judith had been so eager about. Fabien had many more plans to create bio-reserves, including one in Hogsback between Gaika’s Kop and Tor Doon to save the endemic Hogsback Frog, among other precious life forms. He had planned trips to the little Karoo to find and listen to specific birds.
During those two days, I learned a lot about Fabien. For the occasion, he had compiled a list of songs we listened to on the way back, on the Tuesday. Among the many songs were a few of his which he had written, and had offered to a French group to perform. This came as no surprise as Fabien actually was a prolific poet and songwriter. While he did not always write about happy things, his rhymes were impeccable. Many of his written notes show how he was always looking for the perfect rhyming words, before actually writing the text. Fabien composed music too, and played all sorts of string instruments, including the ukulele, the banjo and various home-made looking instruments.
During those two days, he also spoke about his first years at varsity in France, his fellow students, colleagues and lecturers. He had a knack for befriending truly interesting people. And I think that’s because Fabien was himself, truly interesting. He is the only person I’ve met in the flesh, to date, who has told me truly amazing stories, ranging from his encounter with the Baka People in Cameroon, to his theory of the six dimensions.
Fabien who was a good cook, loved good food and good cooking, and was always eager to try new dishes, which was helpful when travelling to exotic parts of the planet.
My partner Angus said to me that, the one thing he was in awe of, when it came to Fabien, was his ability to walk everywhere, come rain or shine. Fabien and five of us went walking the Amatola Trail in November 2010, and Fabien’s notion of light packing was ingenious: 1 backpack, 1 sleeping bag, 1 block of cheddar cheese, 1 pack of sliced bread, 1 pocket knife and the 2002 edition of Newman’s Birds of Southern Africa. Fabien was not a fast walker, he was a very fast walker, which made of him the perfect scout.
Ornithology was one of Fabien’s true passions. I always remember, years ago, when we took a drive through Happy Valley and, to my utter astonishment, Fabien pointed out in the distance a bustard, which I had never seen before. To this day, whenever I drive or hike anywhere, I always remember that specific moment with Fabien, when there is always that possibility that a bird is right in front of my eyes, ready to be appreciated, and all I have to know is how to look for it. This is one of Fabien’s small but long-lasting gifts. In the field, Fabien was king.
Fabien’s mom, Karine, said to me that, today, I must also talk about his sometimes difficult character. I think the best example of this, which became a bit of joke with Fabien, was him storming out of a dinner party because interlocutors were no longer prepared to argue with him. Fabien being French, often explained to me that he never understood why South Africans are so scared of disagreeing, which to him was essential to progress in one’s endeavours. Surely, disagreement was central to any good science.
When I sent the poster invitation for this commemoration to Karine and Mustapha, Karine wrote “Thank you so much. It’s very beautiful”, then she actually called me on the phone to explain that, to her, this photo was so much in line with her idea of true, noble romanticism, Fabien standing next to Judith like a knight protecting his dame by surrounding her shoulders with his arm. Karine cried, not with sad tears, she said, because at least they died together. To her that meant so much, because when Fabien came to South Africa as Judith’s student and they started becoming a couple, Fabien at the time said to his mom that, actually, “Judith was his fate, she was his destiny”.
Karine asked us to play a song by Georges Brassens whom Fabien admired. We will include such a song in the video.
To end this eulogy, I’d like to read one of Fabien’s texts, entitled J’ai 50 ans in French.