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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

Vice-Chancellor to receive prestigious lifetime achievement award in the United States
2013-05-23

23 May 2013

 - Acceptance Speech

The University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to announce that yet another major international award will be bestowed on the Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Jonathan Jansen.

On 3 June 2013 the Education Africa Lifetime Achievement Award for Africa will be added to the multiple international and local achievements and awards Prof Jansen has received over the past months.

He will receive the award at a gala dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City, United States. The glamorous event is hosted in collaboration between Education Africa and Brand South Africa. Prof Jansen will join an illustrious list of recipients, including Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Richard Branson and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

“I am deeply humbled by this award which I dedicate to the great teachers of our country, who under difficult conditions make our schools work for children of the poor; they are the real heroes of education," says Prof Jansen.

The Education Africa Lifetime Achievement Award for Africa is a highly regarded recognition on the world stage, awarded to individuals who focus the attention of the global community on the obstacles some of the poorest African nations face.

“He is a pioneering South African educator who is successfully transforming what was once a bastion of apartheid-era segregation and ideology into one of his country’s most inclusive and dynamic institutions of higher learning,” the organisers said in a statement.

As an extra honour to the UFS, one of its Council Members will also receive an award together with Prof Jansen at the ceremony in New York City next month. Ndaba Ntsele, also the Executive Chairman of Pamodzi Gold Limited and President of the South African Black Business Council, will receive the Education Africa Allegiance Award. This award is given to persons for their ‘steadfast support of the organisation [Education Africa] over many years.”

Prof Jansen’s other recent international awards and honours include the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance from the University of California in the US and membership of the Laureate Chapter of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honour Society in Education.

For more information on these as well as the other awards Prof Jansen has recently received, click here.

 

 

 

 

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