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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

Public Tourism lecture at Qwaqwa Campus a first
2011-10-03

 

Attending the Tourism Month celebrations were from the left: Dr Elias Malete, Qwaqwa Campus Principal; Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk; and Dr Choice Makhetha, Vice-Rector: External Relations (actg).
Photo: Thabo Kessah

Tourism Month was celebrated in style at our Qwaqwa Campus with the hosting of the first ever Public Tourism Lecture. The lecture was part of the national Tourism Month celebrations and was organised by the National Department of Tourism in partnership with the UFS, the Central University of Technology, Free State and the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

The keynote address was presented by UJ’s Ms Milena Ivanovic, whose paper was entitled Cultural Tourism – Global and Local Perspective. This presentation was followed by a discussion by a panel of experts, namely Prof. Doreen Atkinson, Ms Merle Naidoo (both from the UFS), Prof. Albert Strydom (CUT), Dr Webber Ndoro (African World Heritage Fund), Ms Leonore Beukes (Department of Tourism) and Dr Kevin Mearns (UJ).

In acknowledgement of the role that institutions of higher learning play in advancing the tourism agenda, Minister of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said that South Africa was now in a better position to welcome tourists compared to pre-1994.

“Before 1994 we had less than 500 000 foreign arrivals in the country while in 2010 we had over 10 million of whom 8 million were tourists. In 2006 only 26 airlines were using our airports, but now there are over 50 airlines,” he said.

Also in attendance were Free State MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mxolisi Dukwana, and the UFS team led by Qwaqwa Campus Principal, Dr Elias Malete, and Vice-Rector: External Relations, Dr Choice Makhetha.

The Tourism Month festivities were concluded by a tough, but informative Poster Presentation Competition that pitted UFS, UJ and CUT students against each other.

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