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28 November 2022 | Story Gerda-Marié van Rooyen | Photo Supplied
Antjie Krog
Prof Antjie Krog, author, UFS aumna, and Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, discussed the complexities of narratives when it comes to reporting sexual abuse during an International Hybrid Conference hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS) and the War Museum.

During an International Hybrid Conference hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS) and the War Museum, representatives from various universities gathered in Bloemfontein to discuss the complexities of reporting sexual abuse. The conference, themed ‘The Unsung Heroines and Youth of South Africa – Violent Histories and Experiences of South African Women and Children during Wars, Conflicts and Pandemics’ – a collaboration between the UFS Centre for Gender and Africa Studies and the War Museum – gave voice to the urgent need to rewrite the current narrative relating to gender-based violence (GBV). 

Prof Antjie Krog, renowned author and a UFS alumna, delivered a keynote address on Thursday 24 November 2022. She linked the past, referring to the South African War, with the present rate of GBV – with South Africa having the highest rate of abuse against women and children in the world. Prof Krog was the first speaker and deliver an address titled Survival, Complicity and Race: (Im)possibilities of Narrating and Interpreting Rape in Havenga Affidavits.

Prof Krog referred to 24 affidavits relating to rape and sexual assault in the Kroonstad-Heilbron-Lindley-triangle in the Free State during the South African War (1899-1902). These affidavits formed part of the previously embargoed Havenga collection. 

Based on these documents, it is evident that fellow citizens – regardless of ethnicity – joined forces with the enemy. Boys were indoctrinated to believe that they would become men once they torched houses and scorned women. British officials allegedly told these boys: “Do with the women whatever you want.” 

Shaming and silence

Phrasing in the affidavits often differed because of incoherent vocabulary, Prof Krog said. Women would, for example, state: “not achieved his goal” or “applied all attempts”, masking the true events of sexual assault. Talking about abuse in front of male officials, and sometimes even in front of their husbands, as they had to sign their wives' statements to authenticate it, complicated things. 


“People today still struggle to talk about rape without it influencing their integrity.” She referred to the brief moments of decision-making before an assault that haunts victims forever, making them believe they had a choice and thus making them feel responsible for rape and preventing them from reporting sexual abuse. Furthermore, the possibility of abused females disgracing their husbands and families (as rape was not seen as an act against a woman’s body, but against the honour of her husband or father) and, as in the case of the South Africa War, the need for reconciliation outweighed justice, and acts of GBV were silenced. 

Other academics on GBV

Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS, delivered her keynote address on Friday 25 November 2022. Prof Hudson, a specialist in feminist security studies, spoke on the theme of Disciplinary and other stories: From women’s peace movements to the Women, Peace, and Security ecosystem. 

On the same day, Dr Marietjie Oelofse, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Department of History, also referred to victims’ voices being muted during her presentation titled Silent and Silenced: Factors prohibiting women from having a choice after experiencing Human Rights Violations. 

Dr Mpho Maripane-Manaka, a Lecturer at Unisa, was the last speaker at the conference, sharing her research on The amnesia on the commemoration of black African woman in the South African war.

The conference came to an end with a visit to the art exhibition Unsung Heroes at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Friday, and a tour of Bloemfontein on Saturday 26 November 2022.

News Archive

UFS honours Dr Ben Ngubane
2010-05-19

 
 Prof. Teuns Verschoor, acting Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, and Dr Ben Ngubane.
Photo: Stephen Collett


The University of the Free State (UFS) yesterday conferred an honorary doctorate on Dr Ben Ngubane, Chairperson of the SABC Board, during its autumn graduation ceremony held on the South Campus in Bloemfontein.

Dr Ngubane received the degree Philosophiae Doctor (Honoris Causa) for his immense contribution towards positioning South Africa as a major and an influential player in the development of arts, culture, science and technology internationally.

“I want to thank the UFS for this honour bestowed on me and accept this honorary doctorate in all humility and with great gratitude. I am comfortable to regard myself inextricably part of this university and its mission and will always be a worthy ambassador for this institution and what it represents. I am a proud Kovsie!” said Dr Ngubane after receiving the honorary doctorate.

“The world is changing at a rapid pace. Universities not only respond to such changes, they have become critical engines in the reshaping of that world through knowledge production and research innovation. Sitting at the tip of the African continent, and in the centre of South Africa, it is crucial to the ambitions and agendas of the UFS to be constantly aware of how the world of knowledge, innovation and scholarship is changing with respect to higher education, and how the UFS can best contribute to and benefit from such changes,” he said.

“A university worthy of its name thrives on the universality of ideas and people that come with the cross-currents of international scholars and students on its campus. The International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice, to be launched shortly at the UFS has the potential to become a leading centre of scholarship acknowledged globally.”

Dr Ngubane said that the UFS is now well positioned and has the right strategies in place to become truly internationally recognised, with a proven ability to deal successfully with diversity, embedding in its students a humaneness and respect for the dignity of others, as well as an institution with an increasing through-put rate and with research outputs displaying excellence at international level.

Dr Ngubane was the first Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in the new, democratic South Africa appointed by the former President, Nelson Mandela, in 1994. He was re-appointed to lead this ministry again by former President Thabo Mbeki in 1999.

As Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 1996 to 1999, Dr Ngubane is credited for his role in bringing about peace and reducing the political violence that ravaged the province at that time. In 2004 he was appointed as Ambassador to Japan where he initiated, among other projects, the South Africa-Japan University Forum (SAJU).

He holds Honorary Doctorates from the universities of Natal, Zululand, the Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa) and the Tshwane University of Technology.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (acting)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za  
19 May 2010
 

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