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09 January 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah
Ntebohiseng Sekhele Read More
Ntebohiseng Sekhele hopes her PhD study will address conservation conflicts that exist between communities and protected areas.
The University of the Free State’s Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) based on the Qwaqwa Campus has recently concluded the process of recruiting candidates for the University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP). Through this programme, two historically disadvantaged South African universities; Universities of the Free State (Qwaqwa Campus) and Venda (UNIVEN) and three universities in the United States will be collaborating on a number of PhD research projects.

“The programme is funded through the US-SA Higher Education Network and will give candidates and their supervisors the opportunity to regularly travel to the USA and spend time at participating US universities where their co-promoters will be based and allow them to collaborate with identified suitable academics based at those institutions,” said Prof Geofrey Mukwada, Associate Professor in Geography and the coordinator of the project.

One of the young academics selected for this is Ntebohiseng Sekhele from the Geography Department. She will be doing her research in collaboration with the Colorado State University.

“I am delighted to be part of this programme and it still feels like a dream. I feel honored to be selected to participate in such a prestigious programme. To be chosen amongst other applicants means the coordinators believe in my potential, and I look forward to working towards my full potential,” said Sekhele, who describes herself as ‘a simple and ambitious village girl from Monontsha in Qwaqwa.’ 

Sekhele’s proposed PhD study will focus on determining strategies and impacts of conservation practices by the local communities. “It will address conservation conflicts that exist between communities and protected areas; different interpretations of sustainability (including indigenous knowledge) and offer recommendations of harmonising the conservation practices with the sustainability of conservation areas. There is a great need to develop management strategies that will simultaneously satisfy conservation and human needs. She will be graduating with an MSc (Environmental Geography) degree in 2019.

Other US universities involved in the UCDP are Appalachian State University (ASU) and University of Montana (UoM).

News Archive

Societal perceptions of women in politics in Cameroon must change
2017-08-30

 Description: Prof Atanga readmore Tags: Prof Lilian Atanga, University of Bamenda, Faculty of Humanities, Centre for Africa Studies, political participation of women 

Prof Lilian Lem Atanga presented a lecture,
Gender, Discourse and Cognition and Implications on
Political Participation, as part of the First Humanities
and Gendered Worlds Lecture 2017.
Photo: Charl Devenish


Women have not internalised the fact that they can participate on an equal footing in politics with men. This is one of the conclusions made by Prof Lilian Lem Atanga in a study of the political participation of women in Cameroon.
“There still is a strong belief that women can’t deliver the goods (in areas such as politics),” Prof Atanga said. According to her, stereotypes were still entrenched in Africa and a lot had to be done to change societal perceptions of the role of women in politics.

Poor representation of women in politics
Prof Atanga, an associate professor at the University of Bamenda in Cameroon, was guest speaker at the First Humanities and Gendered Worlds Lecture 2017. The lecture was hosted by the Faculty of Humanities and the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at the University of the Free State (UFS) in the Equitas Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus, on 3 August 2017. The title of the research fellow’s lecture at the CAS lecture was Gender, Discourse and Cognition and Implications on Political Participation.
She noted that although there had been a marked increase in the political participation of women in Cameroon, it still was insufficient. Of the 24 million people in the country, 52% were women but only 20% of the senators and 31% of parliamentarians were women. 

Gender-segregated roles affect participation 
And there are many reasons for this. “A lot more women still believe in gender-segregated roles and this affects their political participation.” Many men also don’t approve of women’s political participation.
In her study Prof Atanga found that stereotypes were also emphasised in the way the media in Cameroon reported on the roles of women. 

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