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Alumna Antjie Krog keynote speaker at UFS conference

22 November 2022 | Story Gerda-Marié van Rooyen

Antjie Krog at UFS — The award-winning writer, Antjie Krog, will be the keynote speaker at the International Hybrid Conference from 24 to 26 November 2022. This conference is a joint venture of the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Gender and Africa Studies and the War Museum.

The award-winning writer, Antjie Krog, will be the keynote speaker later this week at an International Hybrid Conference titled, The Unsung Heroines and Youth of South Africa: Violent Histories and Experiences of South African Women and Children during Wars, Conflicts and Pandemics. This conference – a joint project of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) and the War Museum – starts on Thursday 24 November and will be hosted at the War Museum in Bloemfontein and broadcast online. The three-day conference overlaps with the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and aims to assemble historians, academics, and other scholars researching the violent histories of not only women and children in the South African War but in other wars, conflicts, and pandemics as well.

Prof Krog, an Extraordinary Professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Western Cape, poet, and author of Country of my Skull (among other books), is an alumna of the UFS, where she completed a BA degree with Afrikaans, Philosophy, and English. She will deliver her keynote address, Survival, Complicity, and Race: (Im)possibilities of Narrating and Interpreting Rape in Havenga Affidavits, on the first day of the conference.

Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS, will deliver her keynote address on Friday (25 November 2022). Prof Hudson is considered a specialist in feminist security studies. Her keynote address is titled Disciplinary and other stories: From women’s peace movements to the Women, Peace and Security ecosystem.

Several historians, academics, and scholars will either present their research or attend the conference. The conference aims to gather various stakeholders who are researching the violent histories of not only the women and children in the South African War, but other wars, conflicts, and pandemics in South African history dating from precolonial times to the World Wars, Apartheid, to the present. Each of the eight sessions over the first two days will conclude with time set aside for discussion.

The conference programme includes a visit to the art exhibition Unsung Heroes at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Friday after the last session. On Saturday, conference attendees can look forward to a tour of Bloemfontein. Click here for more information or send an email to vicky@anglo-boer.co.za.

News Archive

UFS Debate Society prepares for three major tournaments

2012-11-20

Preparing for the Berlin Championships are, from the left: Richard Chemaly, Zola Valashiya, Ros Limbo and Nkosi Mangali.
Photo: Linda Fekisi
20 November 2012

The UFS Debate Society will be taking on three major projects during the holidays. The month of December will be filled with activities for the team, with members taking trips to Grahamstown, Pretoria and Berlin, Germany to showcase their debating skills.

Their first project is a coaching session in collaboration with the Free State Schools Debating Board. The team will be coaching the provincial school teams and accompanying them to Grahamstown where they will compete in the National Schools Debating Championships in early December.

At around the same time, members will also attend the Pan African Universities Debating Championships that will be held in Pretoria. The PAN African Championship, which the team won in 2009, has expanded over the years and now also includes participants from Australia and the United States of America.
Towards the end of December, four members of the team will be heading to Berlin, Germany to compete in the World Universities Debating Championships. Ros Limbo, Nkosi Mangali, Richard Chemaly and Zola Valashiya will represent the university.

Zola, who is currently the chairperson of the debating society, has been part of the team since 2008. He describes being part of the teams as, “a growing experience. I have learnt a lot, especially how to be a critical thinker”. He was ranked among the top ten speakers in the English First Language division during the Kgorong 2012 National Universities Debating Championships earlier this year. Zola says the team’s goal is to gain as much experience as possible in order to offer training. They are looking at forming strong relations with various other debate societies across the country.

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