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01 July 2022 | Story Marcus Maphile | Photo Supplied

The University of the Free State Library and Information Services (UFSLIS) hosted stakeholders from SABC Lesedi FM, the Free State Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture, the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), and delegates from the National Library for the launch of the first-ever African Languages University Press in South Africa and Africa.  The launch, which took place on 24 May, deliberately coincided with the Africa Month commemorations – as the UFS’ answer to the United Nations General Assembly (Resolution A/RES/74/135) proclamation of the period between 2022 and 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.  

This proclamation aims to draw global attention to the critical situation of many indigenous languages, and to mobilise stakeholders and resources for their preservation, revitalisation, and promotion. The University of the Free State Department of African Languages aims to be a publisher of high-quality original African language monographs and research in order to promote access, preservation, and use of marginalised African languages.  

In his opening remarks, Marcus Maphile, Assistant Director: Library Services, said, “As a broad academic publisher, the African Languages Press will be working across a number of markets, all presenting challenges and opportunities for established and engaged university presses. One of the opportunities will be to challenge the mainstream book publishers to re-enter the indigenous language publishing market.” He further said that this was done to make writing and reading in African indigenous languages fashionable, for other nations to envy our rich multilingual cultural heritage. 

The guest speaker for the launch was the UFS honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) recipient, Dr Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha, who applauded the University of the Free State for taking such a bold step towards enriching and developing African indigenous languages. 

The launch offered the UFS the opportunity to reach out and engage the international community on potential partnerships and collaborations towards developing African languages. The Library Director, Ms Jeanette Molopyane, provided insight into the challenges faced by libraries due to the shortage of books in African languages, while positioning the University of the Free State Library as a trendsetter and a leader in the development of best practices in the field of libraries.  

News Archive

Student excels at international level with research in Inorganic Chemistry
2015-09-21


Carla Pretorius is currently conducting research in
Inorganic Chemistry at the St Petersburg University,
Russia.

Photo:Supplied

Carla Pretorius completed her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry recently, with a thesis entitled “Structural and Reactivity Study of Rhodium(I) Carbonyl Complexes as Model Nano Assemblies”, and has just received her results. The assessors were very impressed, and she will graduate at the next UFS Summer Graduation in December 2015.

She is currently conducting research in St Petersburg, Russia, by invitation. She is working in the group of Prof Vadim Kukushkin of the St Petersburg University, under a bilateral collaboration agreement between the groups of Prof Kukuskin (SPBU) and Prof André Roodt (Head of the Department of Chemistry at the UFS).

Her research involves the intermetallic rhodium-rhodium interactions for the formation of nano-wires and -plates, with applications in the micro-electronics industry, and potentially for harvesting sun energy. She was one of only three young South African scientists invited to attend the workshop “Hot Topics in Contemporary Crystallography” in Split in Croatia during 2014. More recently, she received the prize for best student poster presentation at the international symposium, Indaba 8 in Skukuza in the Kruger National Park, which was judged by an international panel.

Carla was also one of the few international PhD students invited to present a lecture at the 29th European Crystallographic Meeting (ECM29) in Rovinj, Croatia (23-28 August 2015; more than 1 000 delegates from 51 countries). As a result of this lecture, she has just received an invitation to start a collaborative project with a Polish research group at the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France.

According to Prof Roodt, the ESRF ID09B beam line is the only one of its kind in Europe designed for time-resolved Laue diffraction experiments. It has a time-resolution of up to one tenth of a nanosecond, after activation by a laser pulse 100 times shorter (one tenth of a nanosecond when compared to one second is the equivalent of one second compared to 300 years). The results from these experiments will broaden the knowledge on light-induced transformations of very short processes; for example, as in photochemical reactions associated with sun energy harvesting, and will assist in the development of better materials to capture these.

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