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iCAN Vol 2 strengthens CTL’s bid to decolonise

28 November 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Dr Peet van Aardt

iCAN read more — The book was launched during the Student Arts and Life Dialogues Festival on the Bloemfontein Campus in October.

In its continued bid to decolonise the academic curriculum at the University of the Free State (UFS) the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) published the second volume of Creative African Narratives (iCAN) short stories written by UFS students.

iCAN Volume 2 comes after extensive creative writing workshops were presented on all three campuses during the year. The project is coordinated by Dr Peet van Aardt from CTL and is funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

Through the iCAN project, CTL plans to incorporate the students’ written texts as part of the extensive reading component of the first-year academic literacy courses across all faculties. “We are teaching and motivating our students to read, but we cannot keep relying on a curriculum that is foreign to them,” said Dr Van Aardt.

The volume comprises 55 short stories with topics ranging from the Struggle, to campus life, mental illness, family affairs and love, with the students’ lived experiences also a main theme throughout the anthology. The stories are written in Sepedi, isiZulu, Setswana, English, Afrikaans and Sesotho. Some were also performed at the recent Multilingual Mokete, held on the Bloemfontein campus in September.

“We are really proud of this year’s publication, and the project as a whole,” says Dr Van Aardt. “This year we were able to include more student contributions than last year.”

News Archive

Blood tests for players at FIFA Confederations Cup

2009-03-21

Football stars coming to South Africa to play in the FIFA Confederations Cup tournament in June will not only have their urine tested for illegal substances but their blood as well.

This will be the first time that blood samples from sportsmen or women will be tested in South Africa.

“Blood testing is a new regulation from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and will be implemented in our laboratory for the FIFA Confederations Cup in June,” according to Dr Pieter van der Merwe, Head of the SA Doping Control Laboratory at the University of the Free State (UFS), the only testing facility of its kind in Southern Africa.

Although urine will still be tested, blood tests have become compulsory, because the substances used by sports men and women are becoming more sophisticated.

“Some substances, such as the growth hormone, can more easily be detected in blood. It is more difficult to determine these kinds of substances in urine,” explained Dr Van der Merwe.

“We were contracted by the International Rugby Board (IRB) to conduct the testing for the 7’s World Cup Rugby Tournament that was recently held in Dubai and by FIFA to do the testing for the Confederations Cup this year as well as the 2010 World Cup. This demonstrates the confidence of International Sport Federations in the quality and standard of work produced by this facility at the UFS,” he said.

The results of all tests done for the national programme in South Africa are sent to the Institute for Drug Free Sport based in Cape Town from where it is reported to the various sports federations. However, the rugby and soccer results are reported directly to the IRB and FIFA respectively.

The move to incorporate blood tests in the testing process has resulted in the expansion of the facility’s infrastructure.

“A new extension will be built for us in the near future in order for us to accommodate the conducting of urine and blood testing,” says Dr van der Merwe.

Media Release
Issued by: Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2749
Cell: 072 207 8334
E-mail: fishera.stg@ufs.ac.za
20 March 2009

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