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10 July 2018 Photo Johan Roux
Global Leadership Summit starts off on a high note
Students have robust discussions on global issues of social justice and politics

 Global Leadership Summit 2018

The 2018 Global Leadership Summit opened on 8 July 2018 on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) with an exciting Africa-themed event where local and international students and faculty members from more than 14 universities were in attendance. Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Vice Rector: Institutional Change, Student Affairs, welcomed delegates to the UFS, encouraging them to explore the opportunities which the summit presents to them, to learn, engage and take back valuable lessons to their home institutions, and to impart valuable knowledge that they bring to their peers.

Students play a key role in social justice
Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, welcomed delegates at the summit’s grand opening session on 9 July, at which he highlighted the importance of the participation of young people in social justice and leadership. He emphasised the drive which the university has towards engaged scholarship and the role it has in effecting positive change to communities around it, the country and the world at large. Prof Petersen engaged with Mr Jay Naidoo, founding General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and cabinet minister. Mr Naidoo was the keynote speaker and addressed the issues surrounding indigenous knowledge, the values that can be found in it, and the role students can have in protecting and highlighting the value of such knowledge systems to bring future change in the world. “Where do we start in decolonising history? The next generation is rising up to that as more young people want to know about the beginning of the beginning,” Mr Naidoo said.

Human value is central to role of universities
A panel discussion was presented on the topic of the challenges of human value and what universities are doing about it, with Dr Vivienne Felix from New York University in the US, Prof Allen Kim, International Christian University in Japan, Dr Caroline Suranksy, University of Humanistic Studies in the Netherlands, and Dr WP Wahl from the UFS, facilitated by Adjunct Associate Professor Ashraf Mahomed from the University of Cape Town. Dr Suransky said: “If we were to identify ourselves as earthlings rather than with our nationalities, what do you reckon we would learn at universities? How do we inter-connect with the earth rather than try to change it?” she asked.

More than just a summit
The summit, which is a joint programme between the International Office, Student Affairs and the Institute of Reconciliation and Social Justice, will continue with more panel discussions, robust engagements and more activities. It will increase focus on critical thinking, on modalities capable of developing students to function effectively in an increasingly interdependent and complex world. It will also focus on building capacity in intercultural competencies, and grow an appreciation of cultural, historical, religious, linguistic, and political angles. The summit will include an excursion to Kimberley and to Galeshewe township in Northern Cape. Delegates will have the opportunity to attend South African cultural events such as the annual Vrystaat Kunstefees/Free State Arts Festival which will be held on the Bloemfontein Campus from 10-14 July, as well as other African theatre productions. 

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorate to global peace ambassador Dr Lakhdar Brahimi
2015-07-07

Professor Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies at the UFS and Dr Lakhdar Brahimi.
Photo: Mike Rose from Mike Rose Photography

The Faculty of the Humanities and Centre for Africa Studies rewarded the contributions of Dr Lakhdar Brahimi, a prominent global peace leader, with an honorary doctorate on Thursday 2 July 2015.

The conferment formed one of the highlights of the 2015 Winter Graduations. Dr Brahimi’s work as a United Nations’ (UN) envoy, and African peace leader of note, was deeply respected by the university. Professor Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies at the UFS, accepted the PhD on his behalf.

In his acceptance speech, read by Prof Hudson at the Chancellor’s Dinner the same evening, Dr Brahimi expressed his gratitude to the university. “I deeply appreciate your generous recognition, and even now, in the twilight years of my life, I shall try to be worthy of your confidence in everything I say or do.”

“My generation did its share: its successes and its failures are things of the past. We must accept to be judged by you, the graduates. You, the young graduates here at the University of the Free State, and your fellow members of the African intellectual elite, have an exciting opportunity to take on the challenges and fulfil the dreams you have. We must accept to be judged by you.”

Algerian-born Dr Brahimi was first involved with the UN in 1992 as rapporteur to the Earth Summit. Distinctively, he is the most-frequently appointed special envoy of the UN. Amongst many other countries, he has worked as a mediator for South Africa, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Burundi, Angola, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, and Côte d’Ivoire on behalf of the UN.

Significant peacekeeping efforts in South Africa (1993- 1994)

The ambassador– in his capacity as special representative to South Africa from December 1993 to June 1994 –played a direct role in South Africa’s democratic transition.

Prof Hudson expressed appreciation for the ambassador’s role in facilitating a peaceful transition from South Africa’s Nationalist government into the current democratic dispensation.

“One of the reasons we selected him as recipient of the honorary doctorate, is because of what he did for the African continent,” she said.

In addition, she commented Dr Brahimi for being a living testament of Ubuntu. “He has displayed an ethic of humanism in everything that he has done, in the way that he has mediated in certain conflicts - his main contribution is as a mediator.

According to Hudson, his humility, modesty, and generosity are the epitome of Ubuntu which states that “I am because we are.”

Dr Brahimi as a global peace practitioner

Dr Brahimi served as Undersecretary-General of the Arab League, Arab League Special Envoy for Lebanon, and Foreign Minister of Algeria.

The UN Peace-building Commission was established as a result of recommendations in his2000 Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (Brahimi Report).

Since 2007, Dr Brahimi has been a member in The Elders - an alliance chaired by Kofi Annan -of peace and human rights advocates including Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson, and Jimmy Carter. His passion for justice led to his membership in the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

In 2010, he was Laureate of the Special Jury Prize for Conflict Prevention, awarded by the Chirac Foundation (France), which promotes international peace and security.

Dr Brahimi’s influence in Peace Education

The Brahimi Report has had an indelible impact on scholars specialising in the broad field of peace operations. Dr Brahimi’s writings have also contributed to knowledge on post-conflict reconstruction and development (PCRD), a signification part of the African Union’s narrative.

He is a distinguished senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics. He has taught a postgraduate course on Conflict Resolution at Sciences Po, Paris (2011); is Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University; and is affiliated to the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, where he was a visiting professor from 2006 to 2008.

In addition, Dr Brahimi is a founding member of the French-language Journal of Palestine Studies, and a board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.


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