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Join the Africa Month celebrations

07 May 2024 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Supplied

UFS Celebrating Africa Month — The University of the Free State celebrates 2024 Africa Month.

May is widely recognised across African nations as Africa Month, a time dedicated to commemorating the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, a precursor to the African Union (AU). This historic milestone marked a significant shift towards continental unity and the collective pursuit of nation-building, championing the ideals of freedom and liberation from oppression.

On 25 May 2024, Africa celebrates the 61st anniversary of the founding of the OAU, now evolved into the AU. In alignment with this rich tradition, the University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to embrace Africa Day and its core principles once again in 2024, hosting a series of engaging events to highlight the importance of African indigenous knowledge in higher education, both locally and globally.

Honouring our legacy

Even preceding the formation of the OAU in 1963, countless initiatives spearheaded by Africans, both on the continent and within its diaspora, aimed to reclaim Africa’s rightful place on the global stage. South Africans have notably been at the forefront of these efforts, with figures like Pixley ka Isaka Seme delivering his seminal speech on the “Regeneration of Africa” in 1906, a sentiment echoed by subsequent generations through various initiatives geared towards decolonisation and revitalisation.

Africa Month serves as a platform to promote and cultivate appreciation for African arts and culture, fostering robust trade markets and stimulating economic growth across the continent.

Shaping the future

Vision 130 stands as the UFS’s strategic roadmap towards 2034, when the university will celebrate its 130th anniversary. One of its core values of ‘Innovation and Impact’, underscores the institution’s commitment to driving societal progress through impactful endeavours. Embracing creativity and challenging conventional norms, the UFS aims to leverage its knowledge resources to propel the development of the Free State, South Africa, and the African continent, while also contributing to global knowledge and understanding. With a firm commitment to regional engagement, the UFS seeks to be a catalyst for positive change, both locally and continentally.

Events calendar

For 2024, the theme of Africa Month is “Educate and Skill Africa for the 21st Century”, as designated by the African Union. In celebration of this significant milestone, the UFS is organising a diverse array of events throughout the month of May:

5km Fun Run & Walk

The Faculty of Health Sciences will host a 5km Fun Run & Walk, featuring live music, fitness sessions by KovsieFit, and exciting prizes.

Date: 11 May 2024

Time: 06:00

Venue: Francois Retief Building, Bloemfontein Campus.

World citizenship and African higher Education

The Office for International Affairs will host an event on World Citizenship and African Higher Education focusing on preparing students for a globally connected world.

Date: 22 May 2024

Time: 16:00-18:00

Venue: Centenary Complex, Bloemfontein Campus

Livestream to Qwaqwa Campus: https://events.ufs.ac.za/e/events.ufs.ac.za/e/africa2024

Africa Month book launch

The Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) will host a launch a book titled Migration, Borders, and Borderlands꞉ Making National Identity in Southern African Communities which was edited by Dr Munyaradzi Mushonga, Prof John Aerni‑Flessner, Prof Chitja Twala and Dr Grey Magaiza.

Date: 22 May 2024

Time: 14:00 – 15:30

Venue: E0014, Education building, Qwaqwa Campus

Livestream: https://livestream.ufs.ac.za/

Africa Day Memorial Lecture

The CGAS on the Qwaqwa Campus will also host the Africa Day Memorial Lecture titled “Peacebuilding in Africa: Challenges, Trends, and Futures” presented by Prof Ismail Rashid.

Date: 22 May 2024

Time: 16:00-18:00

Venue: E0014 Education Building, Qwaqwa Campus

Livestream: https://livestream.ufs.ac.za/

Faculty of Theology and Religion Africa Day celebration

The Faculty of Theology and Religion on the Bloemfontein Campus will host an Africa Day Celebration.

Date: 24 May 2024

Time: 12:00-13:00

Venue: 10 H van der Merwe Scholtz Hall, Bloemfontein Campus

News Archive

UFS physicists publish in prestigious Nature journal

2017-10-16

Description: Boyden Observatory gravitational wave event Tags: Boyden Observatory, gravitational wave event, Dr Brian van Soelen, Hélène Szegedi, multi-wavelength astronomy
Hélène Szegedi and Dr Brian van Soelen are scientists in the
Department of Physics at the University of the Free State.
Photo: Charl Devenish

In August 2017, the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein played a major role in obtaining optical observations of one of the biggest discoveries ever made in astrophysics: the detection of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave event.

An article reporting on this discovery will appear in the prestigious science journal, Nature, in October 2017. Co-authors of the article, Dr Brian van Soelen and Hélène Szegedi, are from the Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS). Both Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi are researching multi-wavelength astronomy.

Discovery is the beginning of a new epoch in astronomy

Dr van Soelen said: “These observations and this discovery are the beginning of a new epoch in astronomy. We are now able to not only undertake multi-wavelength observations over the whole electromagnetic spectrum (radio up to gamma-rays) but have now been able to observe the same source in both electromagnetic and gravitational waves.”

Until recently it was only possible to observe the universe using light obtained from astronomical sources. This all changed in February 2016 when LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) stated that for the first time they had detected gravitational waves on 14 September 2015 from the merger of two black holes. Since then, LIGO has announced the detection of two more such mergers. A fourth was just reported (27 September 2017), which was the first detected by both LIGO and Virgo. However, despite the huge amount of energy released in these processes, none of this is detectable as radiation in any part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Since the first LIGO detection astronomers have been searching for possible electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave detections.

Large international collaboration of astronomers rushed to observe source

On 17 August 2017 LIGO and Virgo detected the first ever gravitational waves resulting from the merger of two neutron stars. Neutron star mergers produce massive explosions called kilonovae which will produce a specific electromagnetic signature. After the detection of the gravitational wave, telescopes around the world started searching for the optical counterpart, and it was discovered to be located in an elliptical galaxy, NGC4993, 130 million light years away. A large international collaboration of astronomers, including Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi, rushed to observe this source.

At the Boyden Observatory, Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi used the Boyden 1.5-m optical telescope to observe the source in the early evening, from 18 to 21 August. The observations obtained at Boyden Observatory, combined with observations from telescopes in Chile and Hawaii, confirmed that this was the first-ever detection of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave event. Combined with the detection of gamma-rays with the Fermi-LAT telescope, this also confirms that neutron star mergers are responsible for short gamma-ray bursts.

The results from these optical observations are reported in A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source published in Nature in October 2017.

“Our paper is one of a few that will be submitted by different groups that will report on this discovery, including a large LIGO-Virgo paper summarising all observations. The main results from our paper were obtained through the New Technology Telescope, the GROND system, and the Pan-STARRS system. The Boyden observations helped to obtain extra observations during the first 72 hours which showed that the light of the source decreased much quicker than was expected for supernova, classifying this source as a kilonova,” Dr Van Soelen said.

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