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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

UFS Director serves on international financial planning body
2010-03-29

Adv. Wessel Oosthuizen.
Photo: Supplied

Adv. Wessel Oosthuizen, Director of the Centre for Financial Planning Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) and Panel Chairperson of the Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB), was recently seconded to two FPSB meetings.

Adv. Oosthuizen is a member of two work groups that consist of representatives from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. The groups are tasked with developing a framework that would incorporate the abilities, professional skills and knowledge a student or candidate for certification would need to cover when developing viable written financial plans for clients. Additionally, the groups discussed the type and content of templates, tools and guidance documents that education, training and assessment bodies could use to ensure that financial planners were capable of integrating theory and practice when delivering financial planning to clients.

According to Adv Oosthuizen, the FPSB’s goal is to develop guidance documents and templates for practitioners, employers, educators and certification bodies that will support a robust evaluation of independent and supervised work experience for entrants to the field of financial planning, consistent with approaches taken by more established professions by the end of 2010.

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