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06 April 2023 | Story Cornelius Hagenmeier
AFRICA MONTH 2023

Theme: Promoting and appreciating knowledge in and from Africa

On 25 May 2023, Africa will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU). In continuance of the University of the Free State's (UFS) long tradition of commemorating Africa Day and the ideas underpinning it, the UFS will once again celebrate Africa in 2023 by organising diverse commemorations. The commemorations will highlight African indigenous knowledge and its relevance for higher education in South Africa and beyond. The interpretation and transfer of African indigenous knowledge will be celebrated through music and dance.

Africa Day memorial lecture

The highlight of the celebrations will be the Africa Day memorial lecture, hosted by the university's Centre for Gender and Africa Studies on Wednesday 24 May 2023. The speaker is Prof Motlatsi Thabane, formerly of the National University of Lesotho. The title of his presentation is Friendship in the Search for Justice in Mohokare Valley in the Nineteenth Century. The departure point of Prof Thabane’s lecture is the early 19th century. 

He demonstrates that a community of white settlers fleeing British rule in the Cape Colony was added to African communities living in the Mohokare Valley at the beginning of the 1830s. As a result, complex relations developed between African and white settler communities in the Mohokare Valley. Central to those relations was occupation and ownership of land. Driven by different motives and influences, some African communities threw in their lot with incoming white settler communities, while others resisted the alienation of land they regarded as theirs. 

Moshoeshoe I and his followers were among the latter groups. Consequently, relations that developed between Basotho and white settlers were characterised by deep mutual mistrust, tension, and conflict. White settlers were not a monolithic group, however, and among them were individuals who regarded the alienation of Africans’ land as unjust. Josias Philip Hoffman was one such individual. Concerned about the welfare of the Basotho and opposed to the unjust manner in which fellow settlers seized their land, he formed a friendship with Moshoeshoe I, and lent a hand to Moshoeshoe I’s resistance against the alienation of the Basotho’s land. The purpose of the lecture is twofold; first, to celebrate the friendship between these two men, and second, to ask questions about whether we can learn something from this friendship today.

Africa Month book launch 

The memorial lecture will be preceded by a book launch on 22 May. The UFS Library and the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies will facilitate the launch of the book titled, Decolonizing The Mind: A guide to decolonial theory and practice by Sandew Hira, Secretary of the Decolonial International Network (DIN). The book attempts to offer a comprehensive, coherent, and integral theoretical framework that draws on different contributions in the resurgent and insurgent decolonial movement. Hira will use the book launch to make a clarion call for a new world civilisation anchored in the decolonisation of the mind. 

The Africa Month Dialogue, slotted for 26 May and facilitated by the Office for International Affairs, will carry the same theme as the memorial lecture, namely, ‘Promoting and appreciating knowledge in and from Africa’. Together with the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, and international partners, we will discuss the meaning and value of African indigenous knowledge, the importance of being creators and co-creators of knowledge in and from Africa, and the importance of African knowledge on the international stage. Of importance is the idea of African ways of being, knowing, and relating. In the engagement, internationalisation of African knowledge will be considered without necessarily compromising Africa’s ability to integrate and engage on a global level. The UFS’ approach to promoting African-produced knowledge and epistemological diversity and disseminating knowledge in and from Africa will be deliberated. 

Hybrid format 

The 2023 UFS Africa Month commemorations will once again take a hybrid format. Besides the Africa Day memorial lecture, the book launch, the Africa Day Dialogue, and various face-to-face functions on all three campuses, there will also be online content on a dedicated website. We are looking for contributions that engage with knowledge. Among others, UFS community members and its international partners are invited to make contributions centred on promoting and appreciating knowledge in and from Africa by way of contributions centred on, but not limited to the themes below: 

Exploring how knowledge in and from Africa is promoted and appreciated

• The role of orality in creating new understanding and insight 
• The potential of oral traditions and oral history for knowledge creation, transfer, and dissemination 
• Women in African knowledge processes
• Personal biography’s position in knowledge generation
• African land tenure systems
• African languages and knowledge creation
• Indigenous healing systems and pandemics
• Memory and knowledge creation
• African conflict resolution mechanisms and practices
• Ubuntuism 
• Indigenous knowledge in Africa
• The national, regional, and global impact of African scholarship
• UFS knowledge collaborations/partnerships on the African continent
• Narratives of research and student excellence associated with African unity 
• Dissemination of knowledge in and from Africa
• Celebrating epistemological diversity in and from Africa.

Other forms of contributions/participation can include, but are not limited to
• recorded performing arts performances (e.g., solo music or poetry);
• virtual visual art presentations;
• written poetry;
• songs;
• short thought/opinion pieces, which can also be published in mainstream media; 
• topical academic writings;
• face-to-face events; and 
• live-streamed events (with links to the Africa Month webpage).

Please share a brief written proposal explaining your planned contribution by 12 May 2023. The proposal should not exceed 300 words and should be emailed to Bhekumusa Zikhali at zikhalibn@ufs.ac.za / Africadaycommemoration@ufsacza.onmicrosoft.com.

News Archive

New developments in the Faculty of Theology and Religion
2017-08-30

Description: Theology read more Tags: Faculty of Theology and Religion, name change, Prof Fanie Snyman, restructuring, teaching and research 

Bishop JM Khumalo, Apostolic Church of
Christ; Prof Fanie Snyman, Dean of the
Faculty of Theology and Religion; and
Rev Simon Galada, Wesleyan Church,
at the faculty’s official opening in
February 2017. 
Photo: Eugene Seegers



At a meeting of the UFS Council last year, a name change was accepted for the Faculty of Theology, renaming it to the Faculty of Theology and Religion. This change signals openness in approach to other religions, in addition to those of Christian denominations. This is a development that took root in Europe a few years ago. Furthermore, a growing field of interest is the study of the impact religion has had and still has, even in highly secularised societies. This name change is the first of its kind in South Africa, which means that the faculty will lead the way in transformation and impact-based religious studies.

Exciting times lie ahead
Prof Fanie Snyman, Dean of the faculty, says of these refinements: “The new name and restructuring of departments will lead to a new synergy that will have an impact on our teaching and research in the faculty. Exciting times lie ahead for the Faculty of Theology and Religion!”

Apart from the change in the name of the faculty, departments within the faculty were also regrouped, with new names. The Departments of Old Testament and New Testament merged to become the Department of Old and New Testament Studies, while the Departments of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology merged and will now be known as the Department of Historical and Constructive Theology. The former Departments of Practical Theology and Missiology became the Department of Practical and Missional Theology. The Department of Religion Studies remained unchanged to emphasise the importance of religion in South Africa and the world at large.
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Distinction of theological disciplines
The rationale for these groupings is the distinction of theological disciplines in terms of the study of texts (Old and New Testament), sources (Systematic Theology and Church History), and practices (Practical Theology and Missiology). One benefit of these newly-constructed departments is that they will be more cost-effective, but the more important advantage is that this will stimulate discussion and research across the various theological disciplines.


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