The Human Sciences Research Council invites members of the media to the annual Archie Mafeje Memorial Lecture and a seminar looking at Intergenerational Trauma and Memory on Tuesday 28 and Friday 31 March 2017 respectively.

Annual Archie Mafeje Memorial Lecture Tuesday 28 March 2017

The 2017 annual Archie Mafeje Memorial Lecture is inspired by the works of the late Nigerian writer, Amos Tutuola. It serves as a contribution to the unfinished business of rethinking colonial and apartheid ideologies on being human and being African that continue to shape how research is conceptualised, taught and practiced in universities across Africa.

The lecture uses Tutuola’s stories to question dualistic assumptions about reality and scholarship, and to call for conviviality, interconnections and interdependence between competing knowledge traditions in Africa.

On the day, the keynote speaker Prof Francis B Nyamnjoh  will deliver an intriguing address titled, Drinking from the Cosmic Gourd: How Amos Tutuola Can Change Our Minds. Other speakers include MP in the National Legislature, Ms Thoko Didiza.

Archie Mafeje Memorial Lecture which is annually organised by the HSRC in partnership with Unisa-based Archie Mafeje Research Institute (AMRI), commemorates the academic and intellectual contribution of the late Professor Archibald Monwabisi Mafeje, one of the most gifted social science researchers and scholars to emerge in Africa in the last century.

Mafeje was a towering intellectual who contributed to the contemporary African and global social research terrain. This annual gathering seeks to perpetuate Mafeje’s legacy of critical and engaged scholarship in support of progressive agendas of social transformation in the developing world.

Media is invited to attend as follows:

Date                Tuesday 28 March 2017
                      
Time                10:00

Venue             Kgorong Building, Muckleneuk Campus Pretoria

Contact           Manusha Pillai on 082 389 3587
                        MPillai@hsrc.ac.za
                      
                        Adziliwi Nematandani on 082 765 9191
                        anematandani@hsrc.ac.za

Follow the conversation on #ArchieMafeje2017 #HSRC

Interviews can be facilitated with spokespeople.

Seminar looking at Intergenerational Trauma and Memory Friday 31 March 2017

Coming ahead of Freedom Month 2017, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Freedom Park will host a discussion looking at the Intergenerational trauma and memory: Implications for social cohesion in contemporary South Africa.

The seminar will look at, amongst others, South Africa’s history of race based oppression and the long-term traumatic impact of violence that usually accompanies civil strife.  Scholars are of the view that these traumatic memories of past conflict are seldom forgotten and may affect also future generations through what is known as transgenerational transmission of trauma.

This conversation is timely in light of questions around the cohesion of South African society and what can be done to ensure the durability of our democracy.

Media is invited to attend as follows:

Date                Friday 31 March 2017
                      
Time                TBC

Venue             Freedom Park
                        Koch St & 7th Avenue
                        Salvokop, Pretoria

Contact           Manusha Pillai on 082 389 3587
                        MPillai@hsrc.ac.za
                      
                        Naomi Madima on 060 961 3851
                        naomi@freedompark.co.za

Follow the conversation on #MemoryofTrauma #HSRC

Interviews can be facilitated with spokespeople.