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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

Champagne and cancer have more in common than you might think
2013-05-08

 

Photo: Supplied
08 May 2013

No, a glass of champagne will not cure cancer....

…But they have more in common than you might think.

Researchers from the Departments of Microbial Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, Physics and the Centre for Microscopy at the University of the Free State in South Africa were recently exploring the properties of yeast cells in wine and food to find out more of how yeast was able to manufacture the gas that caused bread to rise, champagne to fizz and traditional beer to foam. And the discovery they made is a breakthrough that may have enormous implications for the treatment of diseases in humans.

The team discovered that they could slice open cells with argon gas particles, and look inside. They were surprised to find a maze of tiny passages like gas chambers that allowed each cell to ‘breathe.’ It is this tiny set of ‘lungs’ that puts the bubbles in your bubbly and the bounce in your bread.

But it was the technique that the researchers used to open up the cells that caught the attention of the scientists at the Mayo Clinic (Tumor Angiogenesis and Vascular Biology Research Centre) in the US.

Using this technology, they ultimately aim to peer inside cells taken from a cancer patient to see how treatment was progressing. In this way they would be able to assist the Mayo team to target treatments more effectively, reduce dosages in order to make treatment gentler on the patient, and have an accurate view of how the cancer was being eliminated.

“Yes, we are working with the Mayo Clinic,” said Profes Lodewyk Kock from the Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology Department at the UFS.

“This technique we developed has enormous potential for cell research, whether it is for cancer treatment or any other investigation into the working of cells. Through nanotechnology, and our own invention called Auger-architectomics, we are able to see where no-one has been able to see before.”

The team of Prof Kock including Dr Chantel Swart, Kumisho Dithebe, Prof Hendrik Swart (Physics, UFS) and Prof Pieter van Wyk (Centre for Microscopy, UFS) unlocked the ‘missing link’ that explains the existence of bubbles inside yeasts, and incidentally have created a possible technique for tracking drug and chemotherapy treatment in human cells.

Their work has been published recently in FEMS Yeast Research, the leading international journal on yeast research. In addition, their discovery has been selected for display on the cover page of all 2013 issues of this journal.

One can most certainly raise a glass of champagne to celebrate that!

There are links for video lectures on the technique used and findings on the Internet at:

1. http://vimeo.com/63643628 (Comic version for school kids)

2. http://vimeo.com/61521401 (Detailed version for fellow scientists)

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