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15 March 2021

What do Africa, human rights, and transformation have to do with one another? Are human rights instruments for transformation in Africa, neo-colonial impositions, or the last refuge of the privileged? Is transformation a desirable goal for Africa, or a red herring to make us forget about the real work of decolonisation?

The Department of Public Law and the Free State Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State invite you to a webinar on Africa / Human rights / Transformation’ – a conversation with Johan Froneman, Dhaya Pillay, and Toyin Falola as part of Human Rights Week 2021.

The panel will discuss these and related issues from their perspectives as judges, academics, and politically aware Africans of different hues and origins. Prof Karin van Marle will be the moderator.

Date: 16 March 2021

Time: 15:00-16:30

Virtual event, details, and link to be provided upon RSVP to FSCHR@ufs.ac.za

Information on the speakers

Prof Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas, Austin, and an extraordinary professor in the Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State.

Judge Dhaya Pillay is a judge of the High Court of South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal), Commissioner on the Independent Electoral Commission, and extraordinary professor in the Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State.

Judge Johan Froneman is a retired judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and extraordinary professor in the Department of Public Law at the University of the Free State.

Prof Karin van Marle is professor of Jurisprudence at the University of the Free State.

News Archive

Prof Naomi Morgan knighted by French Government
2015-02-02

Prof Naomi Morgan

Prof Naomi Morgan, lecturer at the UFS Department of Afrikaans and Dutch; German and French, received the prestigious Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award at the French Embassy in Pretoria on Monday 26 January 2015.

The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and its supplementary status to the Ordre national du Mérite was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields.

Prof Morgan is being recognised for her translation work of plays such as ‘Oskar en die Pienk Tannies’, as well as translations of Afrikaans songs to French for the popular Afri-Frans compilation. The fact that the French Government gives such a highly-acclaimed award in recognition to the ‘art of translation’ is even more of an overwhelming honour to her than the personal achievement in itself.

The Chevalier (the Knighting) awarded to Prof Morgan is the third highest grade in the Order.

Prof Morgan now joins world-renowned individuals such as William Kentridge and Johnny Clegg on the list of foreign luminaries who have received this honour. Only two Literature Professors from South Africa – JM Coetzee and André P Brink – received this award in the past. During 1992, Brink received a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Coetzee was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

“I feel that an award like this is not only significant for me, but also to students who are busy with their studies and wondering: is there going to be recognition, what can one do with translation?” Prof Morgan said. “This is the biggest gift, the biggest gift anyone could ever give me. Now I ask for nothing more!”

For more information or enquiries contact news@ufs.ac.za .

 

 

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