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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:
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Prof Solomon appointed to board of flagship journal of UNECA
2016-10-06
Prof Hussein Solomon, member of the Editorial
Board of the Afro-Arab Social and Economic
Review. He is also the author of Islamic State
and the Coming Global Confrontation.
Photo: Charl Devenish
“I cannot say I worked towards it – I just did my work, and I guess someone noticed.” These are the words of Prof Hussein Solomon from the Department of Political Studies and Governance at the University of the Free State (UFS), who was recently appointed to the Editorial Board of the Afro-Arab Social and Economic Review.
On an editorial board with people he quoted
This is the flagship journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). The mandate of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is to promote the economic and social development of the states which are regarded as members of the United Nations (UN). Prof Solomon says the board consists of people that he used to quote when he was a student, and to serve alongside them is a privilege.
Book launched in Greece, Japan, and Indonesia
His book, Islamic State and the Coming Global Confrontation, was earlier published by Palgrave Macmillan in London and launched in Greece, Japan, and Indonesia in June and July 2016 respectively. It analyses the origins and organisational structure of the Islamic State (IS), ans examines its military triumphs and success in securing new recruits via social media.
Exploit of IS vulnerabilities to combat organisation
Prof Solomon says the IS makes use of the winning hearts and mind (WHAM) principle where they earn the trust of residents by providing basic services, and the only solution we have is to “exploit the Islamic State’s vulnerabilities and to highlight their atrocities.”
He mentions that a lot needs to be done to overcome the IS. It is vital to have boots on the ground and an acceptance that countries will splinter. An overarching strategy needs to be in place which allows for regional variations, good governance, and the countering of extremism.