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20 April 2021 | Story Cornelius Hagenmeier

On 25 May 2021, Africa will celebrate the 58th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). A central tenet of the organisation, which was the predecessor of the African Union (AU), is African solidarity. This call celebrates the idea and the ideal of African solidarity. As we are preparing for Africa Month 2021, we received the shocking news about the damage to the University of Cape Town’s African Studies collection. The need for African solidarity to mitigate this immense loss has inspired the theme of the 2021 UFS virtual Africa Month celebration, ‘solidarity in knowledge production and recording’.

From the establishment of the OAU and with the later formation of the AU, member states undertook to coordinate and intensify their cooperation and efforts to achieve a better life for the people of Africa.

Africa Day Memorial Lecture

The UFS has a long tradition of commemorating Africa Day and the ideas underpinning it. Every year, diverse events aimed at advancing African unity and solidarity take place during Africa Month –traditionally, the highlight is the Africa Day Memorial Lecture hosted by the University's Centre for Gender and Africa Studies. On 19 May 2021 at 19:00 (SAST), Prof Walter D Mignolo, a guru of decoloniality, will virtually deliver this year’s lecture titled The beauty of the sovereign people: Jean Casimir and the Decolonial History of Haiti, to honour the memory of transatlantic slavery by reflecting on former ambassador, Prof Jean Casimir, who has shifted the geography of reasoning by breaking the code of the standard history of the slave trade, the African diaspora in the Caribbean, and of captive human beings in the plantations. The discussant will be CGAS Extraordinary Professor and Professor of Epistemologies of the Global South at the University of Bayreuth, Prof Sabelo J Ndlovu-Gatsheni.  

As COVID-19 continues to ravage the world, Africans have been fighting against the pandemic in various ways and have achieved considerable success in this regard. Given the economic and social challenges associated with the pandemic, fostering African solidarity and further developing the underpinning philosophy of ubuntu appear to be particularly worthwhile projects.

A virtual celebration of Africa Month

The UFS 2021 Africa Month commemorations will again take a virtual format. It will include a focus on UFS engagement on the continent, partnerships with other African institutions, research excellence, and student success stories.  The UFS invites all members of its community to contribute thought-provoking pieces to this virtual celebration of Africa Month. Selected contributions will be presented on the university's website and social media.

Among other formats, contributions may take the format of

  • recorded performing art performances (e.g., solo music or poetry);
  • virtual visual art presentations;
  • written poetry;
  • songs;
  • short thought/opinion pieces, which can also be published in mainstream media; or
  • topical academic writings.

Please share a brief written proposal explaining your planned contribution by 30 April 2021. The proposal should not exceed 300 words and should be emailed to Cornelius Hagenmeier (hagenmeiercca@ufs.ac.za) or Prof Colin Chasi (ChasiCT@ufs.ac.za).

News Archive

Minister Jeff Radebe commends UFS for measures taken to address racial prejudices
2013-10-21

 

18 October 2013


  Photo Gallery
Minister Jeff Radebe lecture: YouTube video

Mr Jeff Radebe, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, last night delivered a lecture in the Prestige series of the Dean: Faculty of Law, at the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS).

In a packed hall with, among others, university students, staff and members of the judicial system, Minister Radebe said that many other academic institutions should look to the UFS when they deal with the challenges of racism in its various manifestations in their midst. “I commend the university for taking drastic measures to address the challenges of racial prejudices in its own backyard,” he said.

“Government can and must provide leadership, but it is the collective efforts of all our people that will ensure that we bridge the racial and historical divides that stand in contrast to our noble virtues as entailed in the Constitution,” the Minister said.

On the topic “Access to Justice” the Minister said that the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has channelled more than 80% of its nearly R16 billion budget to the Access to Justice programme.

Minister Radebe talked about the reintroduction of the Sexual Offences Courts, which attests to the unrelenting resolve to eliminate the scourge of gender-based violence. “Fifty-seven of the department’s Regional Courts are being upgraded to operate as dedicated Sexual Offences courts during the 2013/2014 financial year. We believe that these sexual offences courts will help address the growing challenge of sexual offences in the country, particularly against vulnerable groups.”

The Minister also pleaded with law teachers to avail themselves to preside in the courts in our country to complement the decreasing number of presiding officers that are drawn from the attorneys’ and advocates’ profession. These services are normally rendered by the Commissioners pro bono as part of an endeavour to bring justice to all the people, including the poor.

A challenge that the UFS could help resolve,is the transformation of the legal profession. “We need to increase the number of Law students and in turn increase the number of attorneys and advocates in the pool from which we derive candidate judges,” Mr Radebe said.

The Legal Practice Bill and the transformation of the State Legal Service are the most important initiatives underway by which the Institutions of Higher Learning will make a contribution. “The Bill seeks to establish a single regulatory structure, which will be responsible for setting the norms and standards for all legal practitioners. Members of the public, as primary beneficiaries of the legal profession, will also be represented in this structure. Other important objectives of the Bill are the removal of barriers of entry to the profession for young law graduates who aspire to pursue a legal career, and the introduction of measures aimed at ensuring that fees chargeable for legal services are reasonable and within reach of ordinary citizens,” he said.

The Minister concluded: “Our courts must reflect both the race and gender demographics of our country and so must the university communities in their various capacities as a microcosm of the society we seek to build.”

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