Mesias Alfeus is a rags-to-riches man who overcame personal challenges in the face of adversity. At 35, Alfeus, who grew up as a herder in a village in Namibia, got promoted to associate professor at Stellenbosch University.
Mesias Alfeus’ love for numbers began through the games he would play as a young boy while herding livestock. Today, he has a PhD in quantitative finance and is lecturing in the department of statistics and actuarial science at Stellenbosch University. PHOTO: Uendjizuvira Kandanga
The Oshana region is in one of the most rural parts of northern Namibia. At the age of seven, Mesias Alfeus had to travel 20 kilometres to get to the nearest school. He only did this every second day, as he had to balance academics with tending livestock.
“I grew up in the north of Namibia, in Okadila-Onamutai village. When I was very young, at three months, my mom dropped me at my great-grandmother’s – the mother of my grandfather – her father,” he says. “I didn’t know my mom or my dad well.”
In the village, it was common for grandparents and great-grandparents to help raise children. He grew up not knowing how many siblings he had, as they were all raised by different people. He estimates that there are six from his mother’s side and 39 from his father’s side.
“So far, I’ve met six of them. My mom passed away in 2003, and my dad passed away in 2013,” Alfeus, now 35, says.
Mesias Alfeus is now an associate professor at Stellenbosch University. He lectures in the department of statistics and actuarial science, specialising in financial risk management. PHOTO: Uendjizuvira Kandanga
Balancing grade one with herding duty
His love for numbers was shaped through the math games he played with his great-grandmother while herding livestock. In the homestead, there were only two young boys: he and his cousin. The two would alternate going to school so that one could stay at home and look after livestock.
“At most, I would attend school two or three days a week. I failed my Grade one because of that,” he says. At one point, he was taken out of school for two years to work on his grandfather’s farm in the Oshikoto region of Namibia.
“After two years, my great-grandmother realised that I needed to go back to school,” he says.
At the time, he felt like there was “no hope in life”, because most people in the village were herders. Additionally, he was bullied at school – even by his principal – because of his imperfect English. That contributed to his dismal attitude towards school.
His great-grandmother’s steadfast belief in him, however, even when he would lose hope, kept him going.
“I just thank God. And then I thank my great-grandmother eternally, because she believed in me. She made all the efforts to ensure that I went back to school,” he says.
Numbers, always numbers
Mesias Alfeus, an associate professor in the department of statistics and actuarial science at Stellenbosch University, failed Grade one because he had to balance school with livestock herding. PHOTO: Uendjizuvira Kandanga
Because of his performance in the national secondary school examinations, Alfeus received a bursary to study engineering at the Polytechnic of Namibia.
He felt called to mathematics, however.
He found learning math much easier to do than other science-related subjects.
“I wanted to know more,” he says. “When I was in the village, I wanted to do math.”
Funding was his biggest issue. Most companies at that time did not want to fund mathematics because “what was someone going to do with a math degree?”
Then Alfeus met Veston Malango, the general manager of the Chamber of Mines of Namibia at the time. After telling him about his aspirations, Malango helped him secure a scholarship from the Mineral Development Fund, a division in the ministry of mines and energy, to study BCom Mathematical Science at Stellenbosch University.
He got accepted.
“Everything was okay. I came here by bus; I didn’t have money besides the scholarship, which went directly to the [university],” he says.
He thought things were looking up – until the university deregistered him three weeks later because of his English proficiency level.
“I felt like I was paralysed,” he says. “I had to go back to Namibia.”
Legacy, loss, and flight
Alfeus returned to Namibia and submitted a late application to the University of Namibia (UNAM). SU refunded his bursary, and he was able to use it at UNAM. At the end of his first year, he was awarded a merit award for his outstanding performance in the faculty of science.
The next year, his great-grandmother passed away, and he went from being the best first-year student to failing his second year.
But by that time, he was already standing on his own feet at university; something he would never have been able to do without her.
“In my final year, my research was accepted for a conference that was held in
Úbeda, Spain. I had to travel for the first time on a flight to Madrid.”
“First time in a hotel – I had never, never been in a hotel. So…” he says, leaning in. He chuckles: “…there was a little fridge full of drinks. Every time I came from the conference, the fridge was full. I drank everything. I had to try. When I had to go back after five days, I had a huge bill that I didn’t expect.”
Alfeus then secured scholarships to return to SU for his honours and master’s degrees, achieving cum laude in both. He completed a PhD in quantitative finance at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia.
“Within two and a half years, I finished my PhD and published three papers,” he says. He also received a training award for best research by a younger investigator.
Publishing the dream
Alfeus is committed to mentoring PhD students and shaping them into esteemed researchers. He also wants to unite and grow the Namibian community within Cape Town and Stellenbosch. Earlier this year, he organised and hosted a Namibian Independence Day celebration at his house in Jamestown.
Some of the Namibians living in Stellenbosch and Cape Town gathered at Mesias Alfeus’ house in Jamestown, Stellenbosch, on 22 March to celebrate Namibia’s Independence Day (celebrated in Namibia on 21 March). PHOTO: Supplied/Girly Katjivena
Shalongo Angula, a PhD student in civil engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT), attended the celebrations. He met Alfeus at UNAM in 2012 when he was a pre-engineering student and had Alfeus as his tutor. They met again in 2020 when he came to South Africa for his postgraduate studies.
“I know him as someone who is deeply passionate about research, and for me as an aspiring scholar, his advice is always to invest in research. He has said it several times, ‘My guy, you need to publish proper research; that’s the only way you’re going to survive in this field’,” Angula recalls.
Samuel Ndeutapo, a PhD student in civil engineering at SU, says Alfeus also often told him to publish as much as possible because that is what universities look at when recruiting researchers.
“He was advising me to try and publish as much stuff as possible on my research – doesn’t matter if it’s small or big – to develop my writing skills, and to attend workshops that are provided by the university,” Ndeutapo says.
Mesias Alfeus and Samuel Ndeutapo sitting behind the Neelsie Student Centre at Stellenbosch University during lunch time. Alfeus is mentoring Ndeutapo, who is currently completing his PhD at Stellenbosch University. PHOTO: Uendjizuvira Kandanga
On 1 January 2025, Alfeus was promoted to associate professor in the department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Stellenbosch University. This was a full-circle moment, considering his deregistration from the same institution years back.
ABOVE: Mesias Alfeus’ bicycle which he rides around the Stellenbosch University campus, Helshoogte road and Franshhoek pass. He is an avid cycler who participates in cycling tours. BELOW: He likes to hang some medals from previous cycling tours onto the bars of his bicycle. PHOTOS: Uendjizuvira Kandanga
