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Award-winning publication focuses on faith, fear, and identity in 20th-Century SA

12 May 2025 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Dr Ruhan Fourie, a former fellow of the International Studies Group (ISG) at the University of the Free State (UFS), recently received the prestigious Desmond Tutu-Gerrit Brand Prize for Debut Work for his book, Christian Nationalism and Anticommunism in Twentieth Century South Africa (Routledge, published in South Africa by Christian Literature Fund).

A media release by the Andrew Murray-Desmond Tutu Prize Fund stated that the prizes primarily serve as motivation and recognition for writers to produce quality publications of theological and Christian work in all official languages of our country. The awards are given in recognition of extraordinary contributions to unity, reconciliation, and environmental justice in our country.

Currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology at the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Theology, Dr Fourie says the award is especially meaningful because of the book’s academic tone. “I hold public accessibility to scholarly work dear; so, to receive this recognition for a more scholarly work outside academia is very encouraging. When I got the call that I’d won the prize, it was met with great surprise and joy,” he says.

Challenging Cold War assumptions

In the book, he explores the deep-rooted fears that Afrikaners held about communism during the twentieth century. These fears are often assumed to be Cold War products, primarily shaped by the apartheid state. However, Dr Fourie’s research, undertaken as part of his postdoctoral fellowship in the UFS International Studies Group, challenges this simplified narrative. He approached anticommunism more broadly than merely opposition to the state-centred communist doctrine by focusing on the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), which had the widest reach and deepest influence in the everyday lives of Afrikaners.

The book argues that while the DRC played a constant role in shaping an anti-communist imagination among twentieth-century Afrikaners, its influence shifted over time. “It ultimately concludes that anticommunism functioned as a vehicle for nationalist unity (and uniformity), a paradigm for Afrikaner identity, and a legitimiser of the volk’s perceptions of its imagined moral high ground throughout the twentieth century,” he notes.

Dr Fourie credits his time as a postdoctoral fellow (2022-2023) in the UFS ISG as a key part of developing his book. He describes the ISG as a place offering strong institutional support, valuable mentorship, and the academic freedom he needed to shape his ideas into a full monograph. As part of a research-led, student-centred, and regionally engaged institution such as the UFS – which is committed to development and serves as a hub of impactful knowledge – Dr Fourie found the right space to grow both his research and his contribution to the field of South African history.

Impact of UFS' academic environment

He spent a significant part of his emerging academic journey at the UFS. Besides the time he spent on his postdoctoral fellowship at the ISG, he also completed his PhD between 2018 and 2021 – marking a total association of six years with the university. “The ISG’s culture of scholarly rigour, academic freedom, mentorship, and institutional support under the guidance of Prof Ian Phimister, paired with collegiality and collaboration among peers, left a formative impression on me as an aspiring academic,” he comments.

Looking ahead, Dr Fourie is currently working on a project – a biography of anti-apartheid cleric Beyers Naudé. While based on solid academic research, the biography is being written for a wider audience and is aimed at trade publication, an approach that will bring Naudé’s life and legacy to both scholarly and general readers. His interest in Naudé runs deep; his master’s thesis on Naudé’s life was awarded a prize for the best Afrikaans thesis, an early indicator of the path his academic work would follow.

News Archive

UFS sets trend for higher education institutions

2005-09-21

The University of the Free State (UFS) offers more service-learning courses than any other higher education institution in the country and has the highest number of students enrolled for these service-learning courses.

This was the research findings on higher education institutions conducted between 2001 and 2004 by the Joint Education Trust (JET) into service-learning courses. These are courses which seek to integrate service to the community into the academic core of higher education institutions.

The results of this research indicated that the UFS is one of the few higher education institutions in South Africa that have made progress in integrating community engagement into the mainstream academy.

According to the findings 2 233 students at the UFS participated in service-learning courses supported by JET, while 858 students at the University of Transkei (UNITRA), 636 students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and only 600 students at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) participated in service-learning courses.

In total there were 6 930 students participating in service learning courses supported by the JET at 10 institutions throughout the country.

The research also found that out of a total of 182 service-learning courses supported by JET countrywide, the UFS had the highest number of such courses at 42, followed by WITS with 28, the University of Kwazulu Natal with 26, UWC 24 and UNITRA with 22.

Nationally, most of the service-learning courses at higher education institutions are offered in the human sciences (62), followed by health sciences (37), education (26), agriculture (14), and economic sciences (11).

According to leading academics, service-learning is a credit-bearing, educational exercise in which students participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs and helps the student to gain a deeper understanding of course content and a sense of civic responsibility.

Reacting to the research findings, the Rector and Vice-chancellor of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the university feels strongly that there should be integration of service-learning into the academic core of the institution.

“Through service-learning modules the UFS can give expression to its role of service to the community as an institution of higher learning, producing quality graduates who understand the communities in which they will have to function for the rest of their lives,” Prof Fourie said.

According to Mr Jo Lazarus, the project manager of the Community-Higher Education – Service Partnership (CHESP), which falls under the JET, a number of institutions have identified community engagement as a strategic priority and have allocated significant resources from their central budget towards its implementation.

Mr Lazarus said most students have an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards service learning.

“A large percentage of students surveyed indicated that their service-learning course helped to improve their relationship skills, leadership skills and project planning abilities. As significant is the fact that these courses also benefited them in terms of their awareness of cultural differences and opened their eyes about their own cultural stereotypes,” said Mr Lazarus.

“The key challenge still hampering the integration of service-learning as a core function of academic activity is that some institutions still see service-learning as an add-on, and nice-to-have activity,” he said.

According to Mr Lazarus higher education must demonstrate social responsibility and commitment to the common good by making available expertise and infrastructure for service-learning as a form of community engagement.

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

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