Prof Serote is widely recognised as the ‘Father of
Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)’ in South Africa, where he pioneered research and debate on IKS at national level. Prof Serote is also the
National Poet Laureate. Dr Stephanie
Cawood, director of CGAS said that Prof Serote is one of South Africa’s struggle and intellectual stalwarts and that his lecture promises “to be insightful and hopeful in a time when we need to reflect on our position as a nation carefully.”
The topic of the webinar is Going to Basics: The Reconstruction and Development Programme of the Source. “Heritage Day is important to help us reflect on who we are and what we have in common as a people, to focus on what binds us together
and not what divides us,” said Dr Cawood
Due to the limitations imposed by government on events as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CGAS had to reinvent what would have been the Africa Day Memorial Lecture.
About our speaker:
Professor Mongane Wally Serote is the third National Poet Laureate of South Africa inaugurated on November 6, 2018. He is a celebrated poet, author, struggle stalwart, member of the Black Consciousness Movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe commander, pioneer of IKS in South Africa, former MP, and Ngaka (healer). Serote has been awarded national and international accolades, amongst others the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize (1973); the Noma Award (1993); the English Academy of Southern Africa Medal (2003); the Pablo Neruda Award (2004); the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver awarded by President Thabo Mbeki (2007); the prestigious Golden Wreath Award for Poetry (2012), and the Arts and Culture Trust Lifetime Achievement Award (2016).
Read more about Prof Mongane Wally Serote