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25 May 2020

The Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) and the UFS will host an Africa Day Webinar on the topic, Reflections on Africa amidst Covid-19, to be delivered by Prof. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, renowned decolonial scholar. The title of his lecture is Revisiting the African idea of Africa during the moment of Covid-19 pandemic.

The crisis delivered by Coronavirus and Covid-19 invites Africans to rethink and even unthink the long-standing dependency on Europe and North America for help. What has dawned on Africa is the equally long-standing aspiration of self-reliance. What is emerging is a new African idea of Africa which takes responsibility for its own challenges. This new African idea of Africa challenges the Mudimbean idea of Africa embodied in the colonial library.

Thus this presentation reassesses how Africa has relied on its own historical experience, its own knowledge, and own people to confront Covid-19. What is of interest here is the proverbial wisdom of necessity being the source of invention. The presentation brings to the fore the decolonial turn as it gestures beyond crisis into post-Covid-19 world order. It ends with a call for decolonial love founded on new ethics of living together and new economies of care.

Bio of Prof Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatshen


Date: Tuesday, 26 May, 2020
Time: 14:00
Duration: 90 min max (45 min talk, 45 min Q&A)

The webinar can be accessed via one of the following links:


OR

News Archive

Kovsie first-years get ready for great things
2011-01-16

Prof. Jonathan Jansen (Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS) with two of the first-year students.
- Photo: Lize-Mare Smit

“One thing I can assure you: here academic work comes first.” This was how Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), set first-years parents’ minds at ease during the welcoming events of the first-years on the Main Campus the past weekend. 

The welcoming events, which took place over two days, were attended by a total of 7 000 first-years and their parents from across the country. 
 
Prof. Jansen also told the students and their parents that they were at the best place, by sharing his excitement about all the new students who decided to come and study at Kovsies. “You have overcome major obstacles in order to be here today,” he said at the welcoming.
 
With more than 90% new students who comply with admission requirements, this group of students promises to become true leaders of South Africa.
 
Prof. Jansen shared a few plans for the year with the audience. “As in 2010, we shall once again send a group of first-year students to universities later this year, not only in America, but amongst others also to Europe and Asian countries, amongst others, to learn more about different cultures and diversity. We aim to double the number of students who will be selected to 150 this year.” We can also look forward to, amongst others, a brand-new entrance and gymnasium for the Main Campus and four new hostels, two of which will be built on the Qwaqwa Campus.
 
Prof. Jansen emphasised the seriousness with which academic work had to be regarded, by referring to the compulsory class attendance that was implemented last year. “Since the inception of this arrangement in 2010, there was a 30% increase in students’ pass rate,” he said.
 
This year, for the first time, honorary awards were also given to young people who had rendered an exceptional service to the community. Anél Kleingeld, a 10-year-old learner from Trompsburg, and Mpho Phahlo from the UFS’s Unit for Students with Disabilities proudly received these awards. Anél made a remarkable contribution to George’s community when she encouraged learners from her` school to collect and deliver 700 litres of water for this community. Mpho made a point of assisting and motivating persons with disabilities at Kovsies to work hard on a daily basis.
 
 

 

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