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30 May 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin
Africa Memorial lecture
From left; Dr Stephanie Cawood, Director of CGAS; Prof Francis Nyamnjoh; Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities, and Dr Engela van Staden, Vice-Rector: Academic
Ubuntu is a word we all know and, to some extent, relate to. Prof Francis Nyamnjoh aimed to delve and explore this African philosophy when he presented the 2019 Africa Day Memorial Lecture with the topic Ubuntuism and Africa: Actualised, Misappropriated, Endangered and Reappraised. 

The memorial lecture is hosted annually by the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) at the University of the Free State (UFS) to coincide with Africa Month celebrations. Prof Nyamnjoh holds a PhD from the University of Leicester in the UK. He is currently a professor of social anthropology at the University of Cape Town and has been a scholar in sociology, anthropology and communication science at universities in Cameroon and Botswana. The lecture took place on 22 May 2019 in the Equitas Auditorium on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus.

“When I saw the topic I thought this was very contemporary. We at the university decided to include the Ubuntu principle in our learning and teaching strategy,” said Dr Engela van Staden, Vice-Rector: Academic. 

Ubuntu as a binding factor for interconnectedness 

We live a world in which we cannot stand alone as the principle of Ubuntu tells us that we are who we are because of our interconnectedness with other people. “It is important to recognise that you stand on others to be tall,” said Prof Nyamnjoh. 

“We are the product of ongoing conversations on interconnectedness."

“I have argued that, in the spirit of Ubuntu, Africans, their identities and mobilities are part and parcel of the experience of being human in a world on the move. And their contributions are needed in today’s world more than ever. 

“I have broached the context of globalisation and histories of unequal encounters that have shaped relations in Africa and beyond under global capitalism."

“Even as it is increasingly seriously tested by opportunism, Ubuntuism, sometimes a reality and sometimes an ideal, brings hope and redemption, and offers a feasible framework for participatory and inclusive emancipatory social change,” said Prof Nyamnjoh. 


News Archive

Staff member gets fellowship for HIV prevention advocacy
2008-08-01

Ms Estelle Heideman, HIV/Aids Co-ordinator at the Lengau Agriculture Development Centre of the University of the Free State (UFS), was awarded a fellowship under a leadership initiative in the United States of America (USA). It entails an eight-week training programme to help cultivate women leaders in South Africa who will make major contributions to HIV prevention advocacy at the local, regional and national levels. The programme is underwritten by the MAC AIDS Fund and managed by the HIV Centre for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University in New York City and the UCLA Program in Global Health at the University of California in Los Angeles. Fellows will participate in an orientation overview, attend regular scheduled prevention seminars and policy meetings, and hold meetings with mentors. At the conclusion of the programme, the leadership initiative will, amongst other benefits, provide funds for fellows to carry out their prevention programme in South Africa. Ms Heideman, in collaboration with the university’s Chief Directorate Community Service and Free State Rural Development Programme, has been working on a number of farms in the southern Free State since 2006. The prevention plan that captured the interest of the US panel of judges is an eight-week programme among farm workers in the Philippolis district with the aim to equip them to take control of their lives by knowing their HIV status and living a healthy lifestyle.
Photo: Supplied
 

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