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Roots of wisdom: Dr TK Mopeli’s legacy unites scholarship and community

10 October 2025 | Story Precious Shamase | Photo MAFF (Music Art, Food and Fashion) Photography

History was made at the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus with the groundbreaking convergence of the Dr TK Mopeli Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS) Memorial Lecture and Symposium. This joint inaugural event, held under the compelling theme, Roots of Wisdom: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge in Science and Education: The Legacy of Dr TK Mopeli, served as a powerful platform to bridge the academic sphere with the lived wisdom of local communities.

Core vision: From commemoration to critical engagement

The planning team’s core vision was clear: to create a unifying platform where the scholarship of IKS could meaningfully intersect with the lived experience. Held on 19 September 2025, the combined memorial lecture and symposium moved beyond a mere commemoration of Dr Mopeli's enduring legacy. It aimed to be a critical engagement that actively pushed the boundaries of contemporary discourse.

The theme itself was a call to action. It sought to highlight the resilience, innovation, and relevance of IKS in solving modern problems, ensuring that indigenous perspectives not only survive but actively shape scientific research, educational curricula, and community development. This focus linked the region’s heritage to future possibilities, echoing Dr Mopeli’s own dedication to education and self-reliance.

Wisdom beyond the lecture hall: Inclusive participation

Recognising that indigenous knowledge is deeply rooted in lived experience – as highlighted by keynote speaker Prof Lerato Seleteng-Kose’s presentation on the role of IKS in scientific innovation in Lesotho – the planning team prioritised authentic and inclusive participation. Their strategy deliberately mixed celebrated academics with vital community voices. This involved engaging traditional leaders, community elders, and local IKS practitioners alongside university faculty.

To bridge the gap between abstract discourse and grassroots practice, the event created a space where storytelling, rituals, and oral traditions were given value equal to formal scholarly papers, including the message from Princess Shoeshoe ‘Tsiame’ Mopeli on cultivating self-reliance. Sessions utilised local languages, most notably Sesotho, to ensure that the knowledge holders felt fully represented and heard.

Dr Elias Nyefolo Malete described Dr Mopeli as a humble leader, passionate about the advancement of his people and the preservation of the Basotho nation. in his address on An Ideational Analysis and Integration of African Folktales in Science, Technology, and Education, he further emphasised the need to treat indigenous narratives not as relics, but as dynamic sources of knowledge for education.

The road ahead: Actionable outcomes

The symposium was not designed to be an echo chamber. The planning team identified several specific, measurable deliverables aimed at tracking the long-term impact of the discussions:

Policy Influence: Generating recommendations to be shared with local and national structures to positively influence cultural heritage and education policies.

Curriculum Development: Actively informing the integration of IKS into university curricula across various disciplines, ensuring that future students engage with both the theoretical and applied dimensions of indigenous knowledge.

Community Initiatives: Establishing partnerships to support grassroots-level, community-led projects in areas vital to Dr Mopeli's vision, such as sustainable agriculture, health practices, and cultural preservation.

To ensure that these discussions translate into tangible action, a monitoring framework is being put in place. This includes creating a public repository of all presentations and community contributions and establishing follow-up meetings between the university and community stakeholders.

One of the members of the planning team, Prof Puseletso Mofokeng, concluded, “The 2025 Symposium was a historic moment, transforming the late Dr TK Mopeli's Memorial Lecture into a living, dynamic platform. It reaffirmed that indigenous knowledge is not merely a preserved artefact of the past, but a vital, evolving resource capable of guiding sustainable development and shaping a self-reliant future for the region. The event laid the groundwork for Dr Mopeli’s dream to continue living, not just in memory, but in action, policy, and education.”

News Archive

UFS can lead SA in race relations - Ramphele

2010-08-06

Pictured are: Dr Boesak and Dr Ramphele
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe

The University of the Free State (UFS) could well be a perfect model of excellence in race relations that the whole of South Africa could emulate.

This was said by Dr Mamphela Ramphele, the first African to be a Managing Director of the World Bank, during the Anti-Racism Network in Higher Education (ARNHE) Colloquium held at the UFS recently.

“Healing circles need to be constructed on this campus to address issues raised by the Reitz incident,” she said.

“You might yet be the pioneer of what needs to happen on a nation-wide level.

“Can we confidently commit today to go on this quest for a true humanity and walk together as fellow citizens and strive for a more human face for our society? That is our challenge. That is what the UFS is called to give leadership to.”

“It is this human face which has the power to liberate us from the body of death and strengthen us in our struggle for meaningful life together in South Africa,” added one of the main speakers, Dr Allan Boesak, a cleric and former anti-apartheid activist.

However, said Dr Ramphele, this could only be achieved if all South Africans, black and white, abandoned the fear for each other that was hindering, if not stalling, progress in this regard.

“Fear of each other is the most important impediment to the sustainability of our journey into a society united in our diversity,” she said.

“People in this country are afraid to stand up and be counted, including many vice-chancellors and clerics. They are afraid of being seen to be difficult, and that is a major problem. Fear is the most destructive emotion that you can have because it makes you really incompetent and unable to respond to challenges.”

She said the biggest impediment, though, to ending racism was denial. “White people deny vehemently that they are or have ever been racist,” she said.

“We need to go through a process of acknowledging our wounds and scars from our racist past and present missteps in public policy.”

“Instead of saying they are sorry, those who are conscious of their whiteness should rather say what they are sorry for,” said another main speaker, Prof. Dennis Francis, the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the UFS.

On the other hand, according to Dr Boesak, blacks were and still are, to a large extent, also to blame for their own ongoing oppression. “The key here was the acknowledgement of our sheepish timidity, our complicity,” he said.

The Chairperson of ARNHE, Prof. Norman Duncan, had this to say: “If we are to confront and eradicate racism in higher education institutions, we should not do so to create comfort zones for ourselves.”

The theme of this ARNHE Colloquium was Black consciousness and those conscious of their whiteness. It was presented by the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice at the UFS.

Media Release:
Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
6 August 2010

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