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).