Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
01 August 2023 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo SUPPLIED
Apartheid Studies, A Manifesto Book Launch
Prof Nyasha Mboti launched his book, Apartheid Studies: A Manifesto, on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus on 25 July 2023.

in a perpetual state of disaster and creating a normalised life, even if it is built on anomalous arrangements, Prof Nyasha Mboti launched his newly published book, Apartheid Studies: A Manifesto, on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus on 25 July 2023.

Prof Mboti is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Science at the University of the Free State and is the pioneer and founder of Apartheid Studies, a new interdisciplinary field of study from the Global South, which utilises the notion of ‘apartheid’ as a paradigm by which to understand the confounding persistence and permanence of harm, oppression, and injustice.

Oppressive systems persist in modern South Africa

Making reference to the pass laws that were a dominant form/tool of oppression and segregation during the country’s apartheid system, he said apartheid created a “paradigm of life where things that aren’t supposed to go on, go on. 
Life has to go on even in oppression. People have the capacity to live with harm, and apartheid banks on people’s capacity to go on”.

The daring book posits itself as a first-of-its-kind authoritative study of the phenomenon of apartheid, shedding light on the continuing impact of apartheid decades after its formal abolishment and exploring the idea that while it was intended as a temporary phenomenon, it became deeply ingrained and normalised, persisting in various forms today.

“What apartheid is, is a temporary phenomenon that has become permanent. That is my argument. This book is an attempt to leverage how we live with harm as a way of doing something about it and hopefully putting an end to it. If you can go on one day living in harm and the next, before you know it, four decades of living under Apartheid from day to day have passed. Until we understand it, it persists,” he said.

By asking whether one would queue for a dompas, Prof Mboti challenged the audience to reflect on how oppressive systems persist when normalised, even when inflicting profound harm. 
“Would you queue for a dompas? If your answer is yes, then for me, that is an indication that Apartheid persists. Harm persists. Until we understand it, it persists.”

News Archive

Four Kovsies included in Free State tennis team
2009-09-21

 
 Elrien de Villiers, Rensia Henning, Duke Munro and Reon Henning.

 
Four students of the University of the Free State (UFS) are included in the Free State Tennis team that will participate in the Senior Interpro tournament in Pretoria from 12-16 October 2009. The team was selected after the Free State Closed Tournament that took place in August and after the ranking list had been compiled.

The team consists of four men and four women. Kovsies number 1 and 2 were included in both the men’s and women’s team. They are Reon Henning and Duke Munro and Elrien de Villiers and Rensia Henning.

More information about the tournament is available from Mr Pieter Swart at 083 406 or 051 401 2644 or from Ms Mariette Maritz at 082 892 9780.

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