Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
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

An incident-free recess for the UFS
2010-07-19

The improved security measures at the University of the Free State (UFS) have resulted in an incident-free recess on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the annual Volksblad Arts Festival.

The UFS provided accommodation for international spectators visiting the country for the World Cup and recently also hosted the hugely popular Volksblad Arts Festival without any security glitches.

These successes could be attributed to the hard work of staff members from various divisions at the UFS to ensure that the security was improved.

“The main question we had to deal with was: should our Main Campus be fenced off? This matter had been under discussion for quite some time. In order to ensure the feasibility thereof, a second impact study was done by a consulting engineer,” said Prof. Niel Viljoen, Vice-Rector: Operations at the UFS.

“This study has shown that, given the nature of activities on the campus and the access configuration, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to effectively control access to the campus, especially as far as visitors were concerned. Any type of access control measure would result in delays at the gates, which could have a major impact on the traffic flow, delays, costs and emissions.”

“It is important that our staff and students feel safe on the Main Campus, whether they are walking on campus or working in their offices. In that way we can ensure an environment that is conducive to staff and students to work and study,” he said.

Various measures are being implemented to make the campuses safer. These include, among others:

  • The installation of alarms in buildings on the Main Campus. The project for the South Campus has been completed and the installation of a new alarm system on the Qwaqwa Campus will start soon.

     
  • Staff and students will be required to wear identification cards once the new identification system has been put in place. These cards will allow access to all buildings.

     
  • Fences around the Main Campus are being repaired and the areas around these fences are being cleaned. This project should be completed by August 2010.

     
  • Lights will be installed in badly lit areas on the Main Campus. The first phase of this project includes the area between the Mooimeisiesfontein, Welwitschia and Vergeet-my-nie residences. This project will also be completed by August 2010.

     
  • The walkways on the Main Campus will be patrolled more frequently and effectively.

     
  • Contracted security workers will be utilised more effectively.

     
  • The monitoring of security cameras on the Main Campus on a 24/7 basis. “For this purpose the security room of our Protection Services is in the process of being upgraded,” said Prof. Viljoen.

The possibility of placing security cameras and panic buttons in parking areas and walkways is investigated.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za  
16 July 2010

 

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept