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28 June 2022 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studios)
Dr Munyaradzi Mushonga is very optimistic about his appointment as the Global Academic Director of the Decolonial International Network.

Dr Munyaradzi Mushonga of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) at the University of the Free State (UFS) has been appointed Global Academic Director of the Decolonial International Network (DIN). Dr Mushonga, who is a senior lecturer and programme director of CGAS’s Africa Studies programme, says his vision for DIN is “to work towards a new world civilisation that is opposed to the militarism and war, lawlessness and genocides of other civilisations.” 

Dr Mushonga, who is a leading voice and scholar on decolonialisation, will formally assume his role at DIN in 2023. 

The duality of new technology and scholarly work

Dr Mushonga says it is important for our minds to be decolonised, and he is therefore planning to establish a Centre for Decolonising The Mind (CDTM), which will use 21st-century technologies to achieve the ideal of decolonialisation. “Here pluriversal decolonial chapters and centres will be driven towards developing a decolonial history app,” he says. The aim is also to work towards a decolonial textbook on the history of Africa. 

He says it is commendable to employ technology to address decolonisation, but the real work to achieve the ideal of a decolonial mind lies in the scholarly work done by academics. At the CGAS the entire Africa Studies programme addresses decolonial theory and praxis through several approaches. “These are informed by our identity, which is anchored on two pillars, namely the interdisciplinary nature of all our engagements, as well as the exploration and critique of what it means to be ‘human’, but also in relation to the ‘non-human’ world.” He adds that the Centre’s teaching, supervision, and engagement with its students also challenges academics to think beyond the binaries of ‘coloniser’ and ‘colonised’, ‘white’ and ‘black’, and to reject all forms of fundamentalism. 

UFS’s commitment to decoloniality is a great asset 

Dr Mushonga's tenure at DIN will also reinforce the commitment to decolonial education made by the UFS, which has been noted by DIN. “I am convinced that DIN, the CGAS and the UFS can become the great vehicles to drive the decolonial agenda from the global South in general, and South Africa in particular,” he says. He says the commitment to the ideals of decolonisation displayed by UFS and the CGAS played a large part in his appointment to his new DIN role. 

The CGAS and the UFS will become key players in the DIN project, and Dr Mushonga hopes that more individuals and groups will come forward to join forces with DIN. “I hope this will enable DIN to push for new ethics in living.” 

News Archive

Law students get advice from leading law firms in SA
2012-05-02

 

Law students were equiped with knowledge on the legal practice by representatives of 13 firms that exhibited at the Faculty of Law’s Career Fair. 
Photo: Stephen Collett
2 May 2012

Large South African law firms such as Bowman Gilfillan, Adams & Adams, Naude’s and Symington & De Kock exhibited at this year’s Career Fair of the Faculty of Law. During the event, students and exhibitors were addressed by Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector. “Lift your ambition, study hard and aim high,” he told the students.

“Factors such as political loyalty and race should not matter to you as students, but rather passion and dedication for the field in which you will work. As students you should have a different work ethic. Work differently and work harder,” Prof. Jansen said.

Prof. Johan Henning, the Dean of the Faculty of Law said the higher admission requirements and mathematics as a compulsory subject means the calibre of law students at the university cannot easily be equalled. “We develop the best of the best here at the UFS,” he said.

Representatives of the law firms were impressed with the calibre of students at the Career Fair.
 

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