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23 August 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Albert van Biljon
Rolene Strauss
“Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else,” Rolene Strauss quoted from Galatians 6:4.
“Are you allowing yourself to be measured by society’s version of the perfect woman? Is that woman called ‘Perfect’ stealing your self-confidence, your potential, your joy, and your life? Are you allowing that measuring tape to measure you and tell you you aren’t good enough? I believe that as women it is time to stand up and say: ‘No, Perfect – you can’t steal my self-confidence.’ ”These were the opening words of the University of the Free State (UFS) Women’s Breakfast guest speaker, Rolene Strauss.

The measuring tape called ‘Perfect’

Making reference to her personal experiences from being a little girl with big front teeth and skinny legs, to growing into a teenager and having her waist measured, and going on to becoming a beauty pageant contestant, a wife, and a mother. Strauss shared the many ways she has been subjected to society’s unattainable standards. “That measuring tape suffocated me. I realised that there has to be more to being a woman than constantly trying to be perfect.”

The Kovsie alumna, medical doctor, entrepreneur and title holder of both the 2014 Miss South Africa and Miss World competitions, spoke to 820 women on the Bloemfontein Campus on 22 August 2019.

On coming together to uplift each other

Strauss also stressed the importance of planting the seeds of confidence in one another. “The quality of yourself as a woman depends on the quality of the women around you,” she said.

Susan van Jaarsveld echoed Strauss’s sentiments. In her capacity as Senior Director of the Department of Human Resources, which is the official host of the UFS Women’s Breakfast, Van Jaarsveld extended a warm welcome to our guest speaker. Borrowing the words of the late American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, she reiterated that “women are the real architects of society”.

Paying tribute to women of Kovsies

Some former Kovsies who were also celebrated included Gerda Steyn, winner of the 2019 Two Oceans and Comrades ultramarathons; Madam Justice Mahube Molemela, Judge President of the Free State Division of the High Court, Dr Susan Vosloo, South Africa’s first female heart surgeon; Karla Pretorius, player of the 2019 Netball World Cup, Caroline Grace Brüssow, one of South Africa’s top songstresses; and Crystal-Donna Roberts, award- winning actress.

Kovsies continue to walk in the footsteps of excellence to demonstrate respect for the thousands of women who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956. In the spirit of honouring women of the past, present, and future, Van Jaarsveld reminded all the guests that they were valuable, powerful, and deserved every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve their dreams.

Rolene Strauss with UFS staff members
Rolene Strauss with UFS staff members
UFS Women
UFS Women's Breakfast
Staff members attending the UFS Women
Staff members attending the UFS Women's Breakfast
Rolene Strauss with UFS staff members
Rolene Strauss with UFS staff members
Rolene Strauss with UFS staff members
Rolene Strauss with UFS staff members
Rolene Strauss with UFS staff members
Rolene Strauss with UFS staff members

News Archive

“I, too, am an African,” says visiting US drama professor
2013-03-06

 
Africans are of blood and of soil, says Prof Charles Dumas in his inaugural lecture at the UFS. Speaking on the topic I, too, am an African, Prof Dumas reminisced about his life and experiences on the continent.
Photo: Minette Grove
05 March 2013

Lecture (pdf)

What is an African? Is it those born in Africa, defined in racial and genealogical terms, or those who identifies with the continent in nationality and ancestral location? Did the descendants of enslaved Africans in the US, the Caribbean or Brazil lose their Africaness when their ancestors were put on slave ships to the New World?

These were some of the questions raised by Prof Charles Dumas, visiting senior professor in the Department Drama and Theatre Arts, in his inaugural lecture at the university.

Proclaiming attachment to the continent, Prof Dumas told his audience there are two types of Africans: Africans of the blood and Africans of the soil. In a speech titled, “I, too, am an African,” he stated that he lay claim to his ancestral birthright not because of blood relationship to an identifiable ethnic group or birthright to the continent, but because he earned it.

“I suggest another way that one can be an African, is through trial and struggle to be reborn an African in spirit. It is a ritual journey that may be taken by anyone. For, after all, if we are to believe the anthropologists who tell us that human life as we know it began in the Olduvai Gorge, genetically we are all African in origin.”

Prof Dumas, a senior professor at Penn State University in the USA, took the audience on a journey of his experiences on the continent, starting in 1978 when he first came to South Africa as a legal observer. Noticing the changes between Apartheid and today’s South Africa, he said this generation are committed to learn from each other – and that is the most important, he said.

“With their hopes and aspirations they earnestly desire to live in the new South Africa that we promised them. We must support them in their effort. It is time we stored our old baggage in the closet.”

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