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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

Postgraduate student to conduct research on maize quality at Michigan State University
2017-03-27

Description: Student maze research Tags: Student maze research

Schae-Lee Olckers, master’s student in the
Department of Microbial Biochemical and
Food Biotechnology.
Photo: Supplied

Schae-Lee Olckers, a master’s student in the Department of Microbial Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the University of the Free State (UFS), will be travelling to the US in a few weeks’ time. For the next two years she will be doing research at the Michigan State University (MSU) at its Department of Food Science, working on wheat quality and its baking properties.

Increase the nutritional value of maize
The title of her master’s research project is: “The influence of low and optimal nitrogen conditions on the nutritional value of quality protein maize”. She is focusing on the influence of environmental conditions on the nutritional value of maize.

New hybrids of maize production developed

Olckers said: “I chose to start my research on this specific topic in my honours year because maize is the main staple crop in South Africa, as well as in the rest of Africa. Therefore, micronutrient malnutrition is a major concern for developing countries as well as for poor people who rely on it as a major food source. I found it interesting that these breeding programmes that are being developed for new hybrids of maize for production are focusing on increasing the nutritional value of maize and can therefore help eliminate micronutrient malnutrition in some populations of poor communities,” she said.

Prof Perry Ng will be her research supervisor. He is an affiliated professor at UFS in the division of Plant Breeding. “I am very excited about the opportunity to travel and to gain experience working with a well-known cereal scientist. The work he does is also closely associated with my research,” said Olckers.

Her supervisors at UFS are Profs Garry Osthoff and Maryke Labuschagne from the Departments of Microbial Biochemical and Food Biotechnology and Plant Sciences respectively.

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