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Celebrating a Distorted Notion of Unity in Diversity

23 September 2022 | Story Dr Mpumelelo Ncube | Photo Supplied

Opinion article by Dr Mpumelelo Ncube, Academic Head and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work, University of the Free State (UFS).

September is the heritage month during which the nation observes and celebrates all that it inherited from preceding generations. This is the sort of inheritance that includes but is not limited to culture, traditions, monuments, knowledge, land, and belief systems. It anchors the nation. The value attached to any form of heritage is what sustains it and any inheritance that may be deemed to be of less value, loses its significance with the progression of time.

Heritage month and day is the time the nation should celebrate oneness in diversity. Unity in diversity requires clarity of mind and extreme levels of tolerance for each other’s uniqueness. South African society presents such diversity in languages, cultures, religions, tribes, politics, and nationalities among others. Although some of these are inherited and others are acquired, they create a mosaic worth embracing and celebrating.

Language is one critical aspect of people’s heritage

We, however, need to be critical of what we celebrate considering the distorted nature of some of what we have inherited. Language is one critical aspect of people’s heritage. It defines who they are and through it, people are able to create their worldview and develop relationships not only with one another but with their world as well. The African history of colonialism and apartheid that is still perpetuated through various colonial matrices of power has and continues to impact negatively on linguistic interactions. The impact is such that the indigenous African languages are quickly losing their depth as communities experience a linguistic shift to English which is a minority language but due to its economic dominance, commands authority. African parents are putting up with a system that demands their children be taught in a language other than their own and many of them see nothing wrong with that. Given a chance, they would demand that the status quo be upheld or even enhanced. These are the lived experiences of colonisation and its impact on daily lives including language.

If you control people’s language, you control their understanding which forms their worldview. You further control the extent of their development as language is pivotal in ingenuity. Ingenuity speaks to inventiveness and originality. Surely, such cannot manifest through the second, third or fourth languages of instruction which is a common phenomenon across the African continent. Even as people celebrate their heritage, many are struggling to identify some features of their heritage in their languages, let alone start and finish a sentence in their mother tongue. In some communities, it is even seen as a sign of being educated. What type of education is this that disinherits you of your mother tongue? In celebrating diversity, why is it that it’s only the black child who gets given an English name? So many questions that are indicative of a system that is unkind to language diversity as it is lopsided to disadvantage indigenous African languages. It renders celebrations of unity in diversity a mockery.

People have been turned tourists in their own heritage

African food, music, and attire form the tapestry of Heritage Day. At least for a day, one gets a rare experience of one’s identity. For a day, people marvel at the richness of their types of food and feel different but good in their traditional attire while dancing to the sounds of their own music. It is one’s heritage after all. The sad part is that people have become tourists in their own heritage. Their identity no longer forms part of their daily lives. It is one to be visited occasionally. Foreign tendencies have formed habits that in turn are creating new identities and heritages. It is these new heritages that the current generations will bequeath to forthcoming generations. However, we as a people would have moved further away from who we originally were. This has dire consequences on the identity and progression of the nation. As we celebrate this September, let us critically think about what it is that we are celebrating when we are detached from the heritage ceded to us by the generations before us.

News Archive

UFS student makes breakthrough in the application of nanorobots

2005-04-21

A student from the University of the Free State (UFS) has made a ground-breaking discovery in the field of microbiology by uncovering a series of new compounds that may in future be used to lubricate man-made nanorobots.

Mr Olihile Sebolai, a full-time student at the UFS’s Department of Microbial- Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, made this discovery while working on his M Sc-study on yeast.

With this discovery Mr Sebolai will also be awarded six prestigious prizes during this week’s autumn graduation ceremony at the UFS. This university has recognised this exceptional achievement as a build-up to the celebration of national Science and Technology week next month.

Mr Sebolai’s dissertation on the yeast genus Saccharomycopsis Schionning has been published in an accredited international journal of repute.

“Words cannot describe how excited I am. I never expected to receive such recognition for my studies. I am humbled by all of this,” said Mr Sebolai.

The Lipid Biotechnology Group at the UFS recently discovered that some yeasts produce their own water-propelled capsules in which they are transported. These capsules have different shapes and resemble among others miniature flying saucers, hats with razor sharp brims etc. “In order to function properly, parts of the capsules are oiled with prehistoric lubricants – lubricants that are produced by yeasts and that probably existed for many millions of years as yeasts developed,” said Mr Sebolai.

According to Mr Sebolai these capsules are so small that approximately 300 can be fitted into the full-stop at the end of a sentence and are therefore invisible to the naked eye.

“With my studies I discovered many new compounds that resemble these prehistoric lubricants. These lubricants may in future be used to lubricate man-made nanorobots and are similar in size compared to yeast capsules,” said Mr Sebolai. The nanorobots are used to perform tasks in places that are invisible to the naked eye and could one day be used, among others, to clean up human arteries.

Mr Sebolai has been interested in the subject of Micro technology since he was at RT Mokgopa High School in Thaba ‘Nchu. “I was specifically interested in the many possible applications the subject has – in the industry, as well as in medicine,” said Mr Sebolai.

His next goal is to successfully complete his Ph D-degree.

The prizes that will be awarded to Mr Sebolai this week include:

Best Magister student at the UFS (Senate medal and prize);

Best Magister student in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science and Dean’s medal at the same faculty;

The Andries Brink – Sasol-prize for the best M Sc dissertation in Microbiology;

The JP van der Walt prize for best M Sc dissertation in yeast science;

The Chris Small prize for an outstanding Master’s dissertation; and

Honorary colours awarded by the UFS Student Representative Council

Media release

Issued by: Lacea Loader

Media Representative

Tel: (051) 401-2584

Cell: 083 645 2454

E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

20 April 2005

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