Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Reflecting on the past, present, and future of Africa

28 May 2019 Photo Charl Devenish

UFS Africa celebration — I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me,” Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, and a founding father of the African Union.

Since the African Union’s establishment in 1963, the continent marks Africa Day on 25 May annually. To commemorate the achievements made by African leaders 56 years ago to decolonise the continent and pave the way for a united front on the global stage, the University of the Free State (UFS) hosts various events.

Ubuntu our beginning, ubuntu our ending

The university celebrated Africa Day a day early this year. The Office for International Affairs coordinated the 2019 Africa Day Reflection and Celebration on 24 May 2019 at the Bloemfontein Campus. A dialogue session delved into the question of what ubuntu has evolved to mean in modern-day society and how best it can be embodied.

Moderator of the dialogue, Ace Moloi, reckoned that “we have a right not only to give ubuntu but to demand and invoke it from other people.” Staff, students and panellists engaged on the aphorism umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu and whether the philosophical principle is a pragmatic way of doing things or is only referred to when self-correcting.

Prof Colin Chasi, from the UFS Department of Communication Science, touched on how ubuntu is embedded in many Nguni languages. A case in point being the implied presence and connectivity typical found in indigenous language greetings. Other panellists including Prof Karin van Marle( Public Law lecturer at the UFS), Thapelo Mokoatsi,History lecturer at the UFS and Matau Setshase, UFS researcher, made contributions on decolonisation, individual identity, reconciliation, social issues, and traditional healers. The consensus reached was that a lot work still needs to be done in understanding and living the values represented by ubuntu.

Qwaqwa Campus Celebration

The Office for International Affairs (OIA) also hosted the first Annual Africa Day Student Dialogue on the Qwaqwa Campus under the theme: Health, Wellbeing, Access, Social inclusion, Equity and Equality on the African continent.

Africa Day Memorial Lecture

Presenting the 2019 Africa Day Memorial Lecture, Prof Francis Nyamnjoh, from University of Cape Town, delved into the topic of Ubuntuism and Africa: Actualised, Misappropriated, Endangered and Reappraised. “I seek to give currency to concepts such African communitarianism, ubuntu, Africanness, Afrocentricity, Afrocentrism, Africanity, Afrikology, humanness, wholeness and reciprocal altruism,” he said.

Hosted by the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies on 22 May 2019 the annual lecture is a calendar constant which reflects on the importance of celebrating the continent and its people.

Migration debate unpacked borders

The UFS Debate Society reflected on borders and migration in Southern Africa on 21 May 2019. The debate unpacked the topic: The Southern African Development Community should develop a free internal migration policy.

Lecturers also delivered presentations that dissected African societies, the nine frontier wars between the British and amaXhosa that formed South Africa’s borders, and the influence of labour and capital on migration. In closing, African international students shared their lived experiences, hardships and triumphs within the continent.

News Archive

Professor launches his book, opposition parties attend

2011-03-22

Prof. Hussein Solomon
Photo: Stephen Collett

“We are good in opposing people, but we’re less good in opposing ideas.” This was how Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS) introduced the book launch of Against all Odds: Opposition Politics in Southern Africa.

The event was hosted in collaboration with the publisher under the title: Are opposition parties in South Africa in a crisis? This formed part of a series of dialogue sessions, organised by the Centre for Africa Studies, in the run up to the local elections.

Amongst those interested who attended the evening in the Senate Hall of the CR Swart Building on the Main Campus were various politicians, students, staff en a panel consisting of academics and the respective provincial representatives of the ANC and DA.

Dr Mcebisi Ndletyana from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), acted as arbiter.

Proff. Hussein Solomon, author of Against all Odds: Opposition Politics in Southern Africa, also lecturer at the UFS, as well as Dirk Kotzé, Head of the Department of Political Science at Unisa, delivered enriching lectures on the stance and positioning of opposition parties.

Prof. Hussein, who spoke first, circumscribed the context of the political climate in the country, based on his book. “The problem that political science encounters is that everybody becomes experts on the internet, while they have no experience of what is happening in South Africa.” He said that when political parties in the country are under discussion, voters often allow myths and/or stereotyping to influence their concept of it. ‘’If there are no opposition parties, there is no democracy and people are deprived of their vote.”

Prof. Kotzé stated in his speech that it was not only opposition parties who had to make the government watch its step, but also the status that the country acquired, amongst others, from its connections, i.e. collaborative agreements such as BRICSA and the country’s inclusion in the G20. He left the audience with a question about how they were going to become involved in politics, and with his rhetoric question referred to options like social networks and movements.

Mr Sibongile Besani, the ANC'S secretary in the Free State, said the DA grew due to it’s swallowing of other parties; something he claims is taking the country backwards. He also described the use of personalities by opposition parties as means of association a weakness. He added that voters will continue voting for the ANC because they can associate themselves with the party’s vision.

In contrast, Mr Roy Jankielsohn, provincial leader of the DA, said voters and parties unite under their core vision for the country as like in the case of the ANC during the liberation struggles.

During the question-and-answer session, which followed after Mr Jankielson’s speech, Prof. Kwandiwe Kondlo, upon completion and summary of the discussions, stated firmly that the opposition parties are in a crisis. “The start of the solution is to recognise the problem. That is why our democracy finds itself in the state in which it is; because the opposition does not fulfil the role that they are supposed to fulfil.“ Prof. Kondlo is the head of the Centre of Africa Studies at the UFS.

He concluded by stating that the economic basis in the country was not transformed. “We cannot say that people determine their futures if they posses nothing. Opposition parties must start to communicate at this level in order to table something new. Our democracy must become more inclusive at political and material level.”

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept