Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
22 February 2021 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah
Prof Rodwell Makombe’s literary research focuses on a Facebook page that ‘reconstructs home away from home’.

Home is a complex concept, as it is not a physical place. This is according to Prof Rodwell Makombe’s recently published research article titled, Online images and imaginings of home: The case of Qwaqwa Thaba Di Mahlwa Facebook page

“The article looks at how migrants from Qwaqwa, now living in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and elsewhere, imagine Qwaqwa as home. Because they spend a lot of time away from home, they always have a longing and a sense of loneliness, as they live in places that are not home. They also have to find ways of reminiscing about their homeland. This study is about how they reconstruct home away from home. There are two approaches towards the idea of home. Firstly, home can be conceptualised as a familiar place and a place of origin that offers stability. Secondly, home is within them and they carry it with them wherever they go,” said Prof Makombe. 

‘Qwaqwa Thaba Di Mahlwa’  

The study focused on a Facebook page created by Qwaqwa migrants, called ‘Qwaqwa thaba Di Mahlwa’. “We looked at the images that were posted on this page and how they seek to construct Qwaqwa as a home. When a person posts a picture from Qwaqwa, everyone from Qwaqwa associates with the picture and are reminded of certain things from home. Migrants make homes out of this Facebook page and the page becomes a place where all can rally together and construct their home,” he added. 

The study is part of a broader book project titled Visual Cultures of the Afromontane, funded by the Afromontane Research Unit. 

Prof Makombe is an Associate Professor in the Department of English on the Qwaqwa Campus. His areas of research include cultural studies, postcolonial literatures, and cultures of resistance. The article was co-written with Dr Oliver Nyambi.  

 

 

LISTEN: Prof Rodwell Makombe on Qwaqwa migrants and their connection to home

News Archive

Special awards for UFS staff
2006-05-16

Prof Dingie van Rensburg, Director: Centre for Health Systems Research and Development at the University of the Free State, received the Premier’s Excellence Award (Gold) for “outstanding excellence and leadership in the category Research and Development” from the Free State Premier, Mrs Beatrice Marshoff.


 

Prof Andries Stulting (left), Head of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of the Free State (UFS), and Prof Gert van Zyl, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the UFS, each received a special award from the Premier of the Free State, Mrs Beatrice Marshoff on the occasion of her Awards Dinner.  Stulting was honoured for his major contribution towards establishing units and clinics for eye care, as well as outreach programmes in communities.  Under his leadership the Free State also won the floating trophy of the National Department of Health in 2002, 2004 en 2005 as the unit that had performed the most cataract operations countrywide.  Van Zyl was honoured for his research and development contributions towards promoting the public health management system in the Free State.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept