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Dr Munyaradzi Mushonga appointed to lead global network on decoloniality

28 June 2022 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studios)

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

Emotional health of vulnerable children needs urgent intervention

2014-02-04

In South Africa, thousands of children under the age of 18 are orphaned as a result of HIV/Aids. Experts are worried that these orphans and vulnerable children will experience serious socio-emotional problems and behaviour disorders, should urgent intervention programmes not be implemented urgently.

A study was undertaken by the Centre for Development Support at the UFS, in conjunction with Stellenbosch University and the Houston University in America. The research found that in the Free State province alone, about 15% of orphans and vulnerable children showed signs of psychiatric disorders. Almost half of the children in the study showed signs of abnormal or maladjusted behavioural functioning.

The research team believes that the South African government and the numerous non-governmental organisations put too much emphasis on the physical needs of orphaned and vulnerable children and that their socio-emotional or mental wellbeing receives very little attention.

The nominal financial grant is a welcome relief for some of the needs of this risk group. Researchers are worried, though, that the lack of reliable and culturally-sensitive diagnostic methods for the early detection of psychiatric disorders may pose a challenge when the children reach puberty.

The current study is focusing on the detection of emotional behavioural problems even before adolescence. Questionnaires were distributed across the Free State at clinics, schools and non-governmental organisations dealing with these children. The questionnaires enabled researchers to establish the children's socio-emotional needs.

"Overcrowding in houses where orphans and vulnerable children often live is directly linked to poor socio-emotional health in children," says Prof Lochner Marais from the Centre for Development Support. "The state institutions offering programmes for orphans and vulnerable children overemphasise the physical and/or financial needs of these children. The programme provides, for example, food for the children, grants for the [foster] parents, assistance with school clothes and ensures clinic visits for the children. Of these, only the supply of food has a direct impact on the improved mental health of children."

The study provides, for the first time, a profile of the state of mind of this group, as well as the emotional impact of HIV/Aids – an "urgent matter" according to Dr Carla Sharp from the University of Houston's Department of Psychology. According to Dr Sharp, much more could be done to assist foster parents in addressing the emotional needs of these children. The early detection of behavioural disorders should be the key in intervention programmes.

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