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14 September 2020 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Sonia du Toit (Kaleidoscope Studio)
Dr Jared McDonald
Dr Jared McDonald is the lead contact for Southern African research on the One More Voice digital project.
A new digital humanities project, One More Voice, based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, brings together a number of researchers from the US, the UK, and Africa. These researchers include Dr Jared McDonald from the Department of History on the Qwaqwa Campus, who is a project scholar and the lead contact for Southern African research. 

“One More Voice intends to uncover and highlight long-neglected materials in the British imperial archive that illuminate the important roles played by African guides and assistants to famed Victorian explorers of the nineteenth century, such as David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley. It also aims to recover lost voices and contributions that were either glossed over or deliberately excised by European explorers when recounting their travels in Africa. These materials appear in multiple forms, such as travel diaries, letters, autobiographies, maps, travel narratives, testimonies and oral histories, though they have seldom received scholarly or public attention,” said Dr McDonald, who is also Assistant Dean: the Humanities.

“This project challenges the notion of an intrepid European explorer ‘discovering’ new information and collecting data all by himself. Rather, it highlights that African guides, assistants, and companions played an instrumental role in these expeditions and they too left an archival footprint,” he added.

Dr McDonald further revealed that the project is trying to “recover unknown materials, theorise about these materials, and to see this aspect of history in a new and much more balanced way, one not just dominated by contemporaneous nineteenth century European perspectives.” 

Resource for teachers and students

The project welcomes all potential external collaborators based at archives, libraries, museums, and universities. Such collaboration can take multiple forms, such as identifying relevant primary materials, encoding primary materials for digital publication, critical scholarship of digitally curated items, and creating digital exhibitions. “All primary source materials collected by One More Voice are released under a Creative Commons licence, making them available for use by teachers, students, the public, and in scholarship via a user-friendly digital platform,” said Dr McDonald.

The project’s newly launched website is expanding at a rapid rate, offering high-resolution images of manuscript items and original artefacts, edited transcriptions, and critical essays. The digital platform brings to life a variety of African voices that have long been forgotten in the archives.

As the name of the project suggests, there is always one more voice to recover from the archives. It is directed by Prof Adrian Wisnicki, who is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

News Archive

Open Day attracts thousands
2012-05-02

 

Campus was abuzz with prospective students and their parents finding out what Kovsies has to offer.
Photo: Kaleidoscope Studios
1 May 2012

“It is easier to pass Grade 12 today because we don’t have a standard. However, at the University of the Free State, standards are important.”

This was Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS’ message when he addressed a packed Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus during this year’s Open Day.

“This university is the jewel of the country. Here at Kovsies we take academic standards seriously. You must know who you are in a place where academic standards are extremely important. Anyone can obtain a degree, but here you can get more than a degree. You get an education,” he said to the more than 5 000 learners and parents from across the country.

“It is not only important that you study here in South Africa, but also in other countries. That is why our students study all over the world. You must think out of your comfort zone, have a big heart, achieve great heights and show everyone that you are a Kovsie.

But, it is not all about studying – it is also about being human and reaching out to others. When you come to this university, you will also do other things that will make you proud of being a Kovsie.

Quality looks for quality. Therefore, work hard and study hard because you need to be at a good university,” he said.

The programme consisted of, among others, a spectacular laser show, a performance by Bobby van Jaarsveld and special messages from DW Bester and Sannah Mokone, Rhodes Scholars currently studying at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

In a pre-recorded message DW, a Ph.D. student in Mathematical Statistics, encouraged prospective students to work hard and persevere. Sannah, doing a Master’s degree in African Studies, said she believes in the future of the African continent. “I believe in our future students and know you can make it.”

Prof. Jansen also introduced some of the university’s recent student achievers such as Jurie Swart, regional winner of the Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Award; Farzana Samuel, named by the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS) as the most outstanding student in quantity surveying for 2012; and Sibusiso Tshabalala, one of Google’s Top 10 Young Minds.

Richard Chemaly, President of the Central Student Representative Council (CSRC), said that, by coming to Kovsies, prospective students would become the best person they can be. “We have over 70 student organisations to help you take part in student life activities. So, make use of these opportunities,” he said.

The programme concluded with an introduction to the seven faculties by the respective deans.

The estimated 7 000 prospective students and their parents also had the opportunity to visit faculties and the stalls of residences.
 

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