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New partnership set to boost research into African Indigenous spirituality at UFS

26 March 2025 | Story Edzani Nephalela | Photo Lethabo Machabaphala

Theology MOU 2025 — Prof Zorodzai Dube, Head of the Department of Religion Studies at the UFS, and Thabo Seotsanyana, representative for the African Centre of Excellence, formalised a collaboration to advance research into African spirituality.

The University of the Free State (UFS) Faculty of Theology and Religion recently made history as the first institution to partner with the African Centre of Excellence in a significant collaboration advancing research and education on African indigenous spirituality.

This partnership is set to foster a deeper understanding of African indigenous knowledge, highlighting its importance and addressing misconceptions about its practices.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the parties outlines the facilitation of joint research and teaching initiatives. According to Prof Zorodzai Dube, Head of the Department of Religion Studies at the UFS, the MoU will provide UFS students with the unique opportunity to engage with African indigenous knowledge systems, particularly those related to herbs, healthcare, and traditional healing practices.

“The collaboration aims to enrich the students’ academic experience and provide them with critical insights into African indigenous spirituality,” Prof Dube said. “Furthermore, this partnership is seen as a key step toward furthering UFS’s vision to become a leading institution in research, including Africanisation and pan-African research.” He added that the faculty views this collaboration as a springboard for strengthening its position as a leader in addressing Africa-related issues in education and research.

Significance of this partnership

Thabo Seotsanyana, Curriculum Developer for the African Centre of Excellence, emphasised that this partnership will challenge long-standing misconceptions about African spirituality while fostering a deeper appreciation for its value and relevance in contemporary society. “This collaboration is a landmark event for several reasons. It emphasises the importance of African indigenous spirituality in academic discourse and provides a platform for decolonising knowledge systems.”

In his address, Seotsanyana highlighted that the African Hidden Voices is committed to transforming mindsets, particularly within African nations. He spoke about how generations have been influenced by ideologies that dismiss African spiritual practices in favour of foreign belief systems, and how this partnership aims to reverse that trend.

“We are delighted to be signing a Memorandum of Understanding with one of the most highly regarded institutions in South Africa,” Seotsanyana shared, reading a message from Imboni Dr uZwi-Lezwe Radebe, founder of African Hidden Voices. “This marks a significant milestone in our history that will be remembered for years.”

Impact on future generations

Seotsanyana highlighted that the organisation is dedicated to educating individuals about African spirituality, fostering African leadership, and embracing traditional African ways of life.

“Our mission is to nurture a new generation that understands, values, and actively engages with African spirituality,” he explained. “This initiative marks a significant step in the academic exploration and preservation of African indigenous spirituality. It aims to leave a lasting legacy that inspires future generations to reconnect with their heritage, challenge outdated views, and adopt an inclusive, spiritually enriched way of life. This aligns with the University of the Free State’s Vision 130, which promotes inclusivity and ethical values, ensuring that everyone feels represented, welcomed, and has access to the university’s resources.”

News Archive

Service learning teaching strategy essential for the infusion of graduate attributes

2017-01-02

Dr Pulane Pitso, Director: Institutional Performance
Monitoring within Performance Monitoring and Evaluation
Branch in the Department of the Premier, Free State
Provincial Government (FSPG).
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

“Public service delivery is not only about ‘government’s sector end products’, but is also fundamentally related to the ways in which the citizens can be best served at the point of client interface, as the primary beneficiaries.”

It is against this backdrop that Dr Pulane Pitso’s study explored the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in infusing the curriculum with graduate attributes for improved service delivery. The study is entitled: Community service learning as a transformative tool for infusing the university curriculum with graduate attributes for improved service delivery.

Citizens the central focus in public-service delivery
Although with the advent of democracy, the South African public service introduced the Batho Pele “people first” initiative which is one of the key transformation-oriented initiatives to ensure that citizens are the central focus in public service delivery. An extant literature indicates that more work by the government still needs to be done in terms of the institutionalisation and implementation thereof.

Notwithstanding that public service is primarily responsible for addressing challenges related to poor service delivery, Dr Pitso moved from a premise that a multifaceted and collaborative approach, underpinned by a concerted effort by all relevant sectors, is more likely to contribute significantly towards improving service delivery. Specific focus was given to sectors primarily mandated to lay foundations through training and development such as HEIs, since the nature and quality of public service largely depends on the nature, quality and relevance of the system of education.

CSL a transformative teaching strategy
The basis for her thesis, emanated from the contention that public service delivery is a dynamic process which cultivates into a citizen-government relationship.

“It is this relationship that makes the implementation of the Batho Pele initiative crucial in ensuring that the social fabric and moral character of government is not compromised, thus the sustainability and facilitation of the emerged relationship,” Dr Pitso says.

The study focuses on the notion of community service learning (CSL) as an increasingly recognised transformative teaching strategy. It transcends lecture halls and utilises communities as educational spaces to provide practical exposure to real-life experiences to students on both learning and serving the communities.

Instilling graduate attributes in students
Dr Pitso’s thesis, which was predominately qualitative in nature, comprised two main stages. The first stage of the study focused on determining the current state of the public service in terms of the implementation of the Batho Pele principles. Whereas with the second stage, the focus was on determining the extent to which the graduate attributes are instilled in students by means of an exit-level CSL module at the UFS.

Dr Pitso’s thesis, which was awarded to her on 30 June 2016, is the product of five years of hard work, commitment and perseverance. She said it would not have been realised if it had not been for the leadership and mentorship of her promoter, Prof Mabel Erasmus, and co-promoter, Prof Victor Teise.

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