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Africa Month: Celebrating unity and positive futures at UFS

14 May 2025 | Story Tshepo Tsotetsi | Photo Supplied

Africa Month 2025 — Africa: Our identity, our journey, our future.

Each May, countries across the continent mark Africa Month, reflecting on the formation of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 (now the African Union) and the shared vision for a united, thriving Africa. In 2025, the AU draws attention to justice and reparations for Africans and people of African descent. At the University of the Free State (UFS), the commemorative period invites reflection on African identity, futures, and connectedness through learning, dialogue, and cultural expression.

Throughout the month, a range of campus events will celebrate African identity, highlight voices from within the UFS community, and foreground indigenous knowledge systems and the arts – all integral to the institution’s vision of shaping a future grounded in African values and global relevance.

Prof Lynette Jacobs, Acting Director of the Office for International Affairs, believes the continent’s greatest potential lies in its people, cultures, and ways of knowing. “Africa is the heart of humankind … What excites me most is the growing recognition that Africa’s richness lies not only in its resources but also in its people, cultures, and knowledges, both ancient and contemporary,” she says.

Prof Jacobs highlights the university’s role in fostering ethical leadership and driving innovation rooted in African priorities. “We need to produce locally grounded graduates who can hold their own amongst the world’s best; we need to foster ethical, service-oriented leadership; and to serve as hubs for interdisciplinary research. By nurturing innovation, collaboration, and critical thinking, institutions like UFS can help shape an Africa that is not only self-reliant but also a key contributor to global progress.”

Portia Mtawarira, the SRC representative for international students on the Bloemfontein Campus, echoes this belief. “I envision Africa as a continent where we embrace and celebrate diversity – a future where people come together for a common goal: to improve access to quality education, fight social injustice and corruption, reduce unemployment, and promote globalisation and internationalisation,” she says.

She adds that UFS provides a space where this kind of leadership can grow. “The university has created platforms where students can develop the skills needed to become ethical leaders, problem-solvers, and change-makers … It’s now our responsibility to go back into our communities and put into practice the knowledge we’ve acquired here.”

From international collaborations and mobility networks to the everyday spirit of mutual support on campus, Prof Jacobs says she sees interdependence as the African spirit embodied at UFS. “It reflects the deep awareness across African societies that our progress is bound together, and that solutions emerge from solidarity, not divisiveness.”

As UFS continues on its Vision 130 journey, Africa Month affirms the institution’s enduring commitment to connection, celebration, and co-creating a future shaped by African excellence.

Africa Month Events Calendar:

Intercultural Sports Day

The offices of SRC International Students and SRC Sports will host an Intercultural Sports Day that will celebrate cultural diversity through sports.

Date: 16 May 2025

Time: 13:00–17:00

Location: Bloemfontein Campus

Africa Day Memorial Lecture

The Centre for Gender and Africa Studies will host its annual Africa Day Memorial Lecture presented by Prof Cyril Obi, Program Director at the Social Science Research Council, New York. The theme of the lecture is ‘Caught between De-Democratisation and Re-Democratisation: Grappling with Africa’s Complex Conjunctures through the Lens of Political Dialectics’.

Date: 21 May 2025

Time: 18:00

Venue: Equitas, Bloemfontein Campus

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

Africa Day commemoration podcast panel discussion

The Office for International Affairs will host its annual Africa Day commemoration podcast panel discussion featuring UFS Chancellor Prof Bonang Mohale and the former Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor. The theme is ‘Africa’s Future: Higher Education and Global Impact’.

Date: 22 May 2025

Time: 19:00–20:30

Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein

Click here to RSVP

News Archive

UFS boasts with most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa

2005-11-23

Celebrating the inauguration of the NMR were from the left Prof Frederick Fourie (Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS), Dr Detlef Müller (Development Scientist and Manager: Africa and Asia of Bruker in Germany, the supplier of the NMR), Prof Jannie Swarts (head of the head of the Division Physical Chemistry at the UFS) and Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS). Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS boasts with most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa

The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Chemistry now boasts with some of the most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa after the latest addition, a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer, was inaugurated today by the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie. The NMR is used to analyse molecular structures.

Last month the Department of Chemistry celebrated the installation of the most advanced single crystal X-ray diffractometer in Africa. The diffractometer provides an indispensable technique to investigate among others the solid state of compounds for medicinal application.

“Three years ago the UFS executive management realised that, if we want to build a university of excellence, we should invest in research. We started to think strategically about chemistry and decided to bring the apparatus at the Department of Chemistry on a more competitive standard. Strategic partnerships were therefore secured with companies like Sasol,” said Prof Fourie during the inauguration ceremony.

“The installation of the NMR symbolises the ability of the UFS to turn academic areas around. I hope that this is the beginning of a decade of excellence for chemistry at the UFS,” said Prof Fourie.

”The catalogue value of the Bruker 600 MHz NMR is approximately R11 million. With such an advanced apparatus we are now able to train much more post-graduate students,“ said Prof Jannie Swarts, head of the Division Physical Chemistry at the UFS.

”The NMR is the flagship apparatus of the UFS Department of Chemistry that enables chemists to look at compounds more easily at a molecular level. Research in chemistry is critically dependent on NMR, which is a technique that can determine the composition of reactants and products in complicated chemical reactions, with direct application is most focus areas in chemistry,“ said Prof Swarts.

”Parts of the spectrometer consists of non-commercial items that were specifically designed for the UFS Department of Chemistry to allow the study of unique interactions in e.g. rhodium and platinum compounds,” said Prof Swarts.

According to Prof Swarts the NMR enables chemists to conduct investigations on the following:

To evaluate for example the complex behaviour of DNA in proteins as well as the analysis of illegal drugs sometimes used by athletes.
It provides an indispensable technique to investigate compounds for medicinal application for example in breast, prostate and related bone cancer identification and therapy, which are currently synthesised in the Department of Chemistry.
It can also be applied to the area of homogeneous catalysis where new and improved compounds for industrial application are synthesized and characterised, whereby Sasol and even the international petrochemical industry could benefit. This analytical capacity is highly rated, especially in the current climate of increased oil prices.
The NMR can detect and identify small concentrations of impurities in feed streams in the petrochemical industry, e.g. at Sasol and also the international petrochemical industry. These minute amounts of impurities can result in metal catalyst deactivation or decomposition and can cause million of rands worth in product losses.
It is indispensable for studying the complexity of samples that is non-crystalline. These materials represent the vast majority of chemical compounds such as solvents, gasoline, cooking oil, cleaning agents and colorants as examples.

According to Prof Swarts the general medical technique of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) in use at larger hospitals, is based on NMR technology.

”The NMR apparatus enabled the Department of Chemistry to characterise complex molecules that were synthesised for the multi-national company, FARMOFS-PAREXEL, and to negotiate research agreements with overseas universities,” said Prof Swarts.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
22 November 2005

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