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01 October 2018 | Story UFS | Photo Rulanzen Martin
Prof Charles Ngwena is a former professor in the UFS Department
Prof Charles Ngwena is a former professor in the UFS Department of Constitutional Law and Legal Philosophy in the Faculty of Law.

The meaning of race, culture and sexism in Africa takes a different tone than it does in the West. The West has always tried to create an identity for Africa, but the real question remains: “What does it mean to be an African?’ 

“My aim with this book was to see how discourse is formed and what it means when you say the word ‘African’, which is meaningless. You have to look back to understand how that was created,” said Prof Charles Ngwena.

Prof Ngwena’s new book, asks the critical question,‘What is Africanness?’ Fully titled, What is Africanness? Contesting nativism in race, culture and sexualities is a timely contribution to contemporary South African debates on issues of decolonisation, race, ethnicity, nation building and belonging.

Identity formation a crucial element

“The book speaks directly to African cultural heritage and deconstructs a Western-imposed and homogenising framework for understanding Africanness,” said Dr Nadine Lake from the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Prof Ngwena foregrounds the importance of intersectionality when approaching issues of race, culture and sexuality and writes: “Genericness is ineluctably homogenising. It can serve to obscure heterogeneities among women, pre-empting the need to explore the implications of differences among women in feminist theory and praxis.

“Identity is being and becoming. It is always changing. What young people think of identity is not the same way their grandparents thought about it,” said Prof Ngwena. He added that his contribution through this book was to underlay identity formation.

The book, published by Pretoria University Law Press (PULP), was launched in a joint venture by CGAS, the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria on Tuesday 11 September 2018 at the UFS.

News Archive

Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment
2004-11-26

Seated - fltr: Drs Jackie du Toit, from the UFS's Department Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice and Elbie Truter, from the UFS's ULFE.

Standing - fltr: Mr Roelof Geyser, from the UFS's ULFE; proff Theo du Plessis, head of the UFS's ULFE; Naomi Morgan from the UFS's Deparment of Afrikaans, Dutch, French and German and Johan Lubbe from the UFS's ULFE.


Six members of the University of the Free State's (UFS) Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment (ULFE) will take part in the Multilingual Information Development Programme's (MIDP) 5th International Colloquium that will be presented from 29 November -1 December 2004 at the University of Antwerpen in Antwerpen. The topic of this year's colloquium is Multilingualism and the Media.

Various highly acclaimed experts from Belgium and Europe will take part in the colloquium.

It is the first time that so many staff members of the UFS's ULFE will take part in this series of colloquiums, which form part of the ULFE's MIDP project. The project is a partnership with the Free State Province and is conducted in cooperation with the University of Antwerpen. Although the series of colloquiums is mainly sponsored by the Province of Antwerpen, the National Research Foundation and the UFS's Central Research Fund also makes substantial contribution to the series.


 

 

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
26 November 2004

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