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24 May 2023 | Story Dr Cornelius Hagenmeier | Photo Barend Nagel
Africa Month
Inspired by its commitment to Africa, the UFS celebrates Africa Month annually, under the motto ‘One Africa together forever'.

Click to view document#AfricaDay2023: ‘Africa is not a country, it’s a vast tapestry of innumerable stories’


A focus on the African continent is central to the University of the Free State’s (UFS) internationalisation strategy, which envisages an Africa-imbued internationalisation process that advances Africanisation and decolonisation, and includes a focus on expanding researcher networks across Africa.

The UFS considers internationalisation, Africanisation, and decolonisation as complementary processes, and prioritises engagements with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and African countries. The university’s Vision 130 emphasises the UFS’s commitment to the development of the African continent

One Africa together forever

Inspired by its commitment to Africa, the UFS celebrates Africa Month annually, under the motto ‘One Africa together forever'. Every year the campaign focuses on a different theme – this year, it is 'Promoting and appreciating knowledge in and from Africa'. This follows 'Celebrating African Education as a Conduit for African Unity’ in 2022 and ‘Solidarity in Knowledge Production and Recording’ in 2021. The diverse contributions from members of the UFS community, including all celebrations since 2019, are available from the Africa Month section of the UFS website.

The university's internationalisation strategy commits the UFS to co-creating knowledge across the African continent. Manifold collaborations with African universities underpin this. The number of scientific publications co-authored with colleagues across Africa is growing steadily. Between 2019 and 2022, UFS researchers collaborated with 381 African institutions, which resulted in 3 002 co-authored publications.

Strengthening formal partnerships with African universities is an important aspect of the UFS focus on Africa. This presently includes the University of Botswana, the University of Namibia, the National University of Lesotho, Niger Delta University, and the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. In an opinion piece published on the 2023 UFS Africa Month website, Prof Hussein Solomon of the UFS’s Centre for Gender and Africa Studies shares that “any memorandum of understanding needs to deliver on tangible outputs” and cites the example of a collaboratively edited book which he champions together with his Niger Delta University colleague Prof Jude Cocodia.

Flags of Africa

Developing partnerships on the continent

The university invests in strengthening existing and establishing new collaborations on the African continent. In 2022, it focused on developing new partnerships in Ghana and Gabon. In Ghana, it was possible to leverage existing collaborations championed by Prof Loyiso Jita, Dean of the UFS Faculty of Education, to establish institutional collaboration with the University of the Cape Coast and formalise the relationship with the University of Ghana. In Uganda, the UFS established a new collaboration with Busitema University, which is championed by Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa from the Faculty of Health Sciences.

New partnerships were initiated with three Gabonese higher education institutions, including the International Centre for Medical Research in Franceville (CIRMF). The institution's Director-General, Prof Jean Bernard Lekana-Douki, and the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, Prof Francis Petersen, signed a memorandum of understanding in April 2023.

Collaboration had already commenced with a visit by the CIRMF's Dr Judicaël Obame to the UFS Department of Zoology and Entomology in December 2022, during which he delivered a guest lecture and conducted a workshop on mosquito rearing. The targeted engagement with Gabon also resulted in a delegation from École de Management du Gabon University (EM-Gabon) led by its President, Prof Daniel Idiata, visiting the UFS in November 2022 and subsequently formalising its collaboration with the UFS. Together with the Masuku University of Science and Technology, also located in Gabon, PhD co-supervision commenced as a result of the new partnership.

Qwaqwa-campus-based Dr Patricks Otomo, who champions the collaboration and serves as the campus Subject Head: Zoology and Entomology, explains: “As a student in Gabon in the early 2000s, I benefited from an agreement between the Masuku University of Science and Technology, where I was an undergraduate student at the time, and Stellenbosch University. This agreement allowed me to further my studies in South Africa, eventually earning my honours, master’s, and PhD at Stellenbosch University. Knowing the benefits of such agreements and the potential for internationalisation at the UFS, two years ago I approached the Vice-Rector for Research and Internationalisation, Prof Corli Witthuhn, with the idea of intensifying the UFS collaboration with my home country, Gabon. Together with Prof Witthuhn and Dr Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director of the UFS Office for International Affairs, we visited three higher education institutions in the country. We explored collaboration with a specific focus on PhD education. The response was overwhelming: in a short period, it was possible to develop lively partnerships with all three institutions.”

One of the UFS’s important regional partners is the National University of Lesotho. Prof Petersen visited it in 2022 to strengthen the existing multi-layered collaboration, which is underpinned by a memorandum of understanding. Joint activities are taking place through the Directorate for Research Development, which coordinates the Lesotho Highlands Water Project; the Faculty of Education, the Departments of Pharmacology, Political Studies, and Africa Studies; and the Afromontane Research Unit on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus.

Flags of Africa

Connecting the UFS to African philosophy and knowledge paradigms

UFS academics are constantly at the forefront of producing and disseminating cutting-edge work on the African continent. During Africa Month, the UFS, in partnership with Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, hosted the first Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) Africa Conference, at which experts from 16 countries – including 12 African countries – deliberated on CCHFV. It was co-organised by Prof Felicity Burt, an expert in arbovirology from the UFS’s Division of Virology in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Another example of the UFS's research leadership in Africa is that Prof Martin Nyaga, Head of the UFS Next Generation Sequencing (UFS-NGS) Unit, chairs the Africa Centre for Communicable and Preventable Diseases (Africa CDC) working group on Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD). Meanwhile, research collaboration in the Humanities is also flourishing. For example, Prof Chitja Twala, Vice-Dean in the Faculty of the Humanities, has a long-standing relationship with the University of Ghana’s Department of History, and travelled to the partner university in 2022 for an extended research visit.

The UFS is also engaged in many African university networks, which ensures that the university is part of contemporary African higher education discourses. For example, the UFS is an active member of the Association of African Universities (AAU), the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA), and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) .

Through its manifold African collaborations, the UFS lives up to the commitment expressed in its internationalisation strategy: to connect the UFS to African philosophy and knowledge paradigms. Moreover, the UFS’s engagements throughout Africa ensure that the university contributes significantly to promoting and appreciating knowledge in and from Africa.

UFS Rector and Vice Chancellor Prof Francis Petersen summarised this poignantly during the 2022 UFS Africa Month: “Our engagement with the world needs to ensure that the knowledge emanating from our university, our country, and our continent is shared globally.”

The UFS’s collaborations with institutions across Africa make a significant contribution in this regard.

News Archive

Sunflowers are satellite dishes for sunshine, or are they?
2016-07-20

Eighty-six percent of South Africa’s
sunflowers are produced in the
Free State and North West provinces.

Helen Mirren, the English actress, said “the sunflower is like a satellite dish for sunshine”. However, researchers at the University of the Free State (UFS) have found that too much of this sunshine could have a negative effect on the growth of sunflowers, which are a major source of oil in South Africa.

According to Dr Gert Ceronio from the Department of Soil, Crop, and Climate Sciences at the UFS, extremely high soil temperatures play a definite role in the sprouting of sunflower seedlings. Together with Lize Henning, professional officer in the department, and Dr André Nel from the Agricultural Research Council, he is doing research on biotic and abiotic factors that could have an impact on sunflowers.

Description: Sonneblom 2 Tags: Sonneblom 2

Various degrees of deformity (bad-left
to none-right) in seedlings of the same
cultivar at very high soil temperatures.
Photo: Dr Gert Ceronio

Impact of high temperatures on sunflower production

The Free State and North West provinces, which produce 86% of South Africa’s sunflowers, are afflicted especially by high summer temperatures that lead to extremely high soil temperatures.

Dr Ceronio says: “Although sunflower seeds are able to germinate at temperatures from as low as 4°C to as high as 41°C, soil temperatures of 35°C and higher could have a negative effect on the vegetative faculty of sunflower seedlings, and could have an adverse effect on the percentage of sunflowers that germinate. From the end of November until mid-January, this is a common phenomenon in the sandy soil of the Free State and North West provinces. Soil temperatures can easily exceed the critical temperature of 43°C, which can lead to poor germination and even the replanting of sunflowers.”

Since temperature have a huge impact not only on the germination of sunflower seeds, but also on the vegetative faculty and sprouting of sunflower seedlings, Dr Ceronio suggests that sunflowers should be planted in soil with soil temperatures of 22 to 30°C. Planting is usually done in October and early November. Unfortunately, this is not always possible, as soil moisture is not optimal for growth. Farmers are then compelled to plant sunflowers later.

Impact of herbicides on sunflower growth

“High soil temperatures, combined with the herbicide sensitivity of some cultivars, could lead to the poor development of seedlings," says Dr Ceronio.

The use of herbicides, such as ALACHLOR, for the control of weeds in sunflowers is common practice in sunflower production. It has already been determined that ALACHLOR could still have a damaging effect on the seedlings of some cultivars during germination and sprouting, even at recommended application dosages.

“The purpose of the continued research is to establish the sensitivity of sunflower cultivars to ALACHLOR when exposed to high soil temperatures,” says Dr Ceronio.

 

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