Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Why do we not speak of ubuntu for warriors?

17 May 2021 | Story Eugene Seegers | Photo Anja Aucamp

Prof Chasi_web read more — Prof Colin Chasi’s latest book, Ubuntu for Warriors, looks at lost and forgotten warrior traditions in Africa and how ubuntu relates to these.

It is not common for scholars to challenge foundational ideas of their epoch. But this is the case with the recently published book, Ubuntu for Warriors, from Africa World Press, which extends the boundaries of current thinking on the African moral philosophy of ‘ubuntu’. The author of this ground-breaking book is Prof Colin Chasi, Director of the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Drawing on various biographical sources and interweaving these with conceptual arguments, Prof Chasi introduces the view that ubuntu is for warriors too. Interestingly, the book does not seek to ‘knock out’ existing African moral theories that focus on harmony, peace, and reconciliation. Rather, it recalls the lost and forgotten warrior traditions through which Africans have sought to advance just war and peace. To this end, the names of venerated Africans such as King Shaka, President Nelson Mandela, President Kenneth Kaunda, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and Steve Bantu Biko are prominent.

The book’s reappraisal of the contributions to the warrior tradition of these Africans makes for engaging conversations about war, violence, warriors — and about the ubuntu of all of these. For Prof Nyasha Mboti, author of a forthcoming book introducing the need to study apartheid systematically, the main contribution of Prof Chasi’s book “is to rescue ubuntu from the one-dimensional philosophical straitjacket long imposed on it in normative readings”.

Prof Chasi's riveting book not only overturns commonly held epistemological premises of the philosophy of ubuntu. In view of this, Dr Winston Mano, Director of the Africa Media Centre at the University of Westminster, says it “goes further to uncover and position ubuntu as a resource for counterhegemonic struggles. It is a must-read not only for all those interested in taking African philosophy but also and especially for all those warriors involved in moving African epistemologies to the centre.”

News Archive

Regional Conference on Trafficking in Human Beings

2007-06-29

Trafficking in Human Beings:
National and International Perspectives

Date: 17th August 2007
Address: CR Swart Auditorium, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Every year thousands of children and adults become victims of trafficking and abuse in South Africa and throughout the southern African region. Victims are trafficked for a myriad of reasons: sexual exploitation, including prostitution and pornography; illegal labour, including child conscription; domestic servitude; illegal adoptions; body parts/organs; and forced marriages.

The Unit for Children’s Rights, Department of Criminal and Medical Law, University of the Free State (UFS), together with the Centre for Continuing Legal Education at UFS, will host a Regional Conference on Trafficking in Human Beings. The conference will bring together key role-players from the South African government as well as crucial international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the region.

Trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, is a serious violation of the human rights of the victims, as well as an extremely profitable source of income to organized crime, and needs the attention and intervention of both governmental and non-governmental institutions in South Africa.

Speakers will include representatives from the United National Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the South African Law Reform Commission, the Unit for Children’s Rights-UFS, and NGOs Molo Songololo and Terre Des Homes, that work with child trafficking victims in South Africa and around the world.

The media are invited to report on the conference, and interview speakers and presenters Attached find programme. For more info contact the following persons.

1. Beatri Kruger - 051 401 2108 / email: krugerh.rd@mail.ufs.ac.za
2. Susan Kreston - 051 401 9562 / email: krestons.rd@mail.ufs.ac.za
3. Elizabeth Snyman – 051 401 2268 / email: snymane.rd@mail.ufs.ac.za

Programme

Trafficking in human beings:
National & international perspectives

Presented by The Unit for Children’s Rights, Department Of Criminal & Medical Law , Faculty of Law, in Conjunction with The Centre for Continuing Legal Education, University of the Free State.

Funded through the Generosity of the United States Department of State

17 AUGUST, 2007 – CR SWART AUDITORIAM

8:00-8:30 Registration & Tea
8:30-8:45 Opening & Welcome
Prof. JJ Henning, Faculty of Law
8:45-9:40 Overview & Global Perspective
Prof. Susan Kreston - Unit for Children’s Rights, Faculty of Law-UFS

9:40-10:00 TEA

10:00-10:45 International Perspectives & the Role of Organized Crime in Trafficking
Wiesje Zikkenheiner, Associate Expert
United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime, Pretoria
10:45-11:45 Identifying and Assisting Victims of Trafficking
Marija Nikolovska, Project Officer
International Organization for Migration, Pretoria

11:45-12:30 LUNCH

12:30-1:15 Prosecuting Trafficking Without Trafficking Laws
Adv. Nolwandle Qaba, Sexual Offences & Community Affairs Unit
National Prosecuting Authority, Pretoria
1:15-2:15 Recommendations for New Legislation in South Africa
Lowesa Stuurman - South African Law Reform Commission, Pretoria

2:15-2:30 TEA

2:30-2:50 The Role of Terre Des Homes in Fighting Trafficking in Children
Judith Mthombeni– Terre Des Homes, Pretoria
2:50-3:50 Trafficking in Children in South Africa – A Front Line Perspective
Patrick Solomon - Molo Songololo, Cape Town
3:50-4:00 Closing Remarks
Adv. Beatri Kruger
Department of Criminal & Medical Law - UFS

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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