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UFS to launch Africa Reparations Hub

13 July 2023 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Supplied

UFS African Reparation — The University of the Free State Africa Reparations Hub (UFSARH) aims to anchor the African reparations agenda through scholarship and advocacy.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is set to launch an Africa Reparations Hub, which will serve as a hub for Pan-African-led reparations scholarship, policy, and advocacy. The University of the Free State Africa Reparations Hub (UFSARH) will be housed within the UFS Faculty of Law.

“The UFSARH vision is to be an international academic forum to institutionalise, promote and advance the Africa reparations agenda,” says Khanya Motshabi, UFSARH Strategic Lead. “Its mission anchors the Africa reparations agenda through research, scholarship, and advocacy. The hub is underpinned by the values and principles of excellence, ubuntu, social justice, African-centredness, and Pan-African epistemological grounding of all its initiatives, operations, activities, and undertakings.”

As a Pan-African centre, the hub will work at national, regional, and international levels, and resolves to conduct research, offer education, develop policies, and advocate for reparations via a UFSARH Panel of Experts on Africa Reparations. It will have three key facets: a database on Africans for Africa, which will serve as a repository for resources and an information archive; it will serve as home to the expert group on Africa reparations; and anchor a research group on the subject.

Convened by Dr Catherine Namakula, the hub will be established under the auspices of the Faculty of Law and the Department of Public Law, and would be accountable to an advisory board led by Prof Serges Kamga, Dean of the Faculty of Law, and Prof Shaun De Freitas, Head of the Department of Public Law.

Addressing the wrongs of the past

As a home for a repository of all resources on Africa reparations, the UFSARH aims to support the pursuit of justice for historical injustices such as enslavement, apartheid, colonialism, neo-colonialism, and economic exploitation and extortion. In addition, the UFSARH’s contribution to global equality and social justice aligns with the UFS’s Vision 130 strategic plan.

The UFSARH aims to unify and strengthen the fragmented African reparations narrative by serving as a prominent legal, academic, and transdisciplinary forum.

“The hub would also anchor and reinforce the Africa Reparations Agenda of the African Union. It shall bolster the increased awareness and activism of African government, non-government, civil society, and individual actors through grounding relevant political, diplomatic, normative, and academic activities and initiatives,” says Dr Shelton Makore, UFSARH Technical Lead.

News Archive

Global exercise initiative launched on Bloemfontein Campus

2012-03-14

Healthier and fitter Kovsies
Photo: Anja Aucamp
13 March 2012

Staff and students are getting ready to sweat this week with the launch of the worldwide Exercise is Medicine Programme on the Bloemfontein Campus on 14 and 15 March 2012.

The programme will be introduced for the first time in Africa and our university is the only African university that forms part of the launch.

Exercise is Medicine is an initiative which encourages health care providers to include exercise when designing treatment plans for patients. The programme designed by the American College of Sports Medicine and it has a presence in countries such as Australia, Italy, China and Brazil.

As part of the programme launch, staff and students will attend presentations by prominent health practitioners and participate in a range of fitness activities such as Taebo and Zumba. The Wellness Division of the Centre for Health and Wellness has more activities planned for the rest of the year to keep Kovsies healthy. This will include a cycling event and netball, volleyball and soccer games.

Dr Louis Holtzhausen, Head of the Division Sport and Exercise Medicine, says that it has been proved unequivocally that regular exercise is good for people's health.

"It is clear that regular exercise should not only be promoted by the medical profession, but that physical activity should be monitored and recorded by doctors as a major modifiable risk factor for morbidity and mortality."

Dr Holtzhausen says one of the goals of the Exercise is Medicine Programme is that physical activity becomes a vital sign to be recorded, with doctors routinely discussing it with their individual patients.

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