Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
10 September 2019 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Stephen Collett
Dr Edith Phaswana
Dr Edith Phaswana, acting Head of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, delivered the fifth King Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus.
Dr Edith Phaswana, acting Head of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, delivered the fifth King Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State. 

Dr Phaswana indicated that she saw the lecture as a platform to reflect on leadership in the country.

The event was hosted by the Directorate: Community Engagement, and was attended by university management structures, staff and students, as well as members of government and business, traditional leaders, municipal counsellors, church leaders, and high school learners.

Welcoming all attendees to the lecture, was Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor. “This lecture is a platform for public debate around key issues faced by society,” he said. 

Prof Petersen continued: “We have historical leaders on the African continent who can demonstrate that there are things you can learn from us. One of these leaders is King Moshoeshoe 1, an example of ethical leadership.”

In her address, Dr Phaswana also honoured King Moshoeshoe 1. She said Africa was riddled with colonialism, slavery, and apartheid. For a long time, this was the situation on the continent, without the rest of the word knowing the truth – the other side of the story. “We need to re-write the story in a way that does not glorify the hunter,” she urged.

African solutions for African problems

“There are many movements towards power for Africans, including the fight against colonialism, black consciousness, psychological liberation of black persons, and many others – all to provide African solutions to African problems. But in all these movements, we need to find African unity. This is the pinnacle of what Africans strive for.”

On the topic of leadership, she stated: “Africa is desperate for a critical mass of thought leaders. Leaders who can acknowledge that the story as told by the hunter is a single story. Leaders that will dig deeper and understand and discover our own heroes. Leaders who question and challenge knowledge and do not just accept everything.” 

She pointed out that thought leaders knew what was best for their people, and also knew their own strengths and limitations. 
 “Thought leaders are unconventional. King Moshoeshoe 1 demonstrated exemplary thought leadership at the young age of 19. He was sought for advice.”

King Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture
Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor; Prof Puleng LenkaBula,; Mr Skully Thembeni Nxangisa,
MEC for Cooperative Governance  and  Traditional Affairs;and  Dr Edith Phaswana, acting Head of the Thabo Mbeki African
Leadership Institute, who delivered the lecture.

Young people can make a difference

“Young people too can make their mark in the world,” Phatswana told the young attendees. “We are all big enough to make a mark in society.” 

She, however, believes that not enough is being done on the continent to develop youth leadership. “As Africans, we should aspire to value our young people who have valuable contributions to make in society.”

Dr Phaswana also talked about changes to the curriculum. “We need a different curriculum. We need to find our own existence in the world of knowledge. We need no longer be silent and accept defeat as African scholars,” she stated. 

Be the difference you want to see

The MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Skully Thembeni Nxangisa, said the lecture came at the right time – a time when South Africa was facing several challenges, such as poverty, inequality, and violence against women and children. 

He called on communities to stop killing each another. “This lecture helps us to look inside ourselves for a lasting solution to our challenges,” he said.

“King Moshoeshoe 1 was a warrior, a nation builder, a diplomat, a protector, and a believer in a doctrine not separating him from his people. Go back and access the wisdom of our forefathers,” Mr Nxangisa stated.

He called on all spheres of society to take hands and to make a difference. “Be the difference you want to see,” he said and added that students, through community engagement, could play an important role in social cohesion. 

Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Student Affairs, and Community Engagement, concluded: “It is up to our young people to identify leaders that will make our society flourish and live in harmony.”


News Archive

Historians must place African history on world stage – Dr Zeleza
2017-05-30

 Description: Historians must place African history on world stage Tags: Historians must place African history on world stage

From the left: Panellists Rev Henry Jackson,
Prof Irikidzayi Manase and Arno Van Niekerk at a book
launch and panel discussion on Africa Day hosted by the
UFS Sasol Library.
Photo: Mamosa Makaya

“African historians must take seriously the challenge of placing African history in world history, and in the history of our species, Homo sapiens.”

With these words, Dr Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Vice Chancellor of the United States International University-Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, stressed the continent’s challenge.

According to him the contest should continue to recover and reconstruct Africa’s long history. Liberating African knowledges can be done by: “Provincialising Europe that has monopolised universality, universalising Africa beyond its Eurocentric provincialisation, and engaging histories of other continents on their own terms.”

University celebrates Africa Month in various ways  
Dr Zeleza delivered the ninth Africa Day Memorial Lecture, titled The Decolonisation of African Knowledges, at the University of the Free State (UFS). The lecture, hosted by the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), took place on 24 May 2017 in the Equitas Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus and was one of the ways in which the UFS celebrated Africa Month.

Scholars should immerse themselves in these thoughts
Dr Zeleza focused on two issues, which he said were interconnected. They were the unfinished project of decolonising African knowledges and the continent's positioning in global knowledge production.

He said Africa’s scholars and students should “immerse themselves in the rich traditions of African social thought going back millennia”. According to him the continent’s research profile still remains weak in global terms.

“It is imperative that the various key stakeholders in African higher education from governments to the general public to parents, and to students, faculty, staff, and administrators in the academic institutions themselves, raise the value proposition of African higher education for 21st century African societies, economies, and polities.”

“Colonialism is associated with injustice
and inequality, but what happens when
our liberators become our oppressors?”

Library celebrates with panel discussion and book launch
The UFS Sasol Library celebrated Africa Day by presenting a book launch and panel discussion on 25 May 2017, on the pertinent and current political theme of land redistribution with a comparative basis of land invasions in Zimbabwe.

Prof Irikidzayi Manase discussed his book White Narratives: The Depiction of Post-2000 Land Invasions in Zimbabwe, accompanied by Rev Henry Jackson who wrote Another Farm in Africa. A perspective of the economic implications of land redistribution in South Africa was discussed by panellist Arno Van Niekerk: Senior Lecturer of Economics at the UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

Inequality still an African problem
The content of the books are a stark reminder of the burning issues of inequality and loss of identity of those who lost their farms in Zimbabwe, a collection of memoirs by white farmers and their families. Rev Jackson gave a religious perspective on reconciliation, forgiveness and the question of land ownership, saying that healing of injustice begins with forgiveness of past transgressions.

Van Niekerk highlighted that while land issues were important, “social cohesion is affected by the economic decisions that will be made”. In closing, Prof Manase called for serious consideration of what the future may hold. “Colonialism is associated with injustice and inequality, but what happens when our liberators become our oppressors?” 

The panel discussion was attended by staff and students of the university, and was lit up by robust discussions on possible historical and future solutions to the question of land, decolonisation and political power struggles in Southern Africa and lessons to be learned from Zimbabwe.

UFS celebrates Africa Month (24 May 2017)

 

 

 

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