Unisa online - UNISA hosts International Conference on the Humanities in Southe

The International Conference on the Humanities in Southern Africa (ICH) hosted by the UNISA School of Arts, Education, Languages and Communication and co-convened by the University of Pretoria (UP) and UNISA cooperating under the auspices of the English Academy of Southern Africa, was opened at the University of Pretoria on 22 June 2008.

In his welcome address to the conference delegates, Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Barney Pityana stated that it was timely and appropriate to reflect on the role of the humanities in higher education. He said that the humanities had been the Cinderella for the past ten years because of the strong focus on the sciences, business and computing. “In higher education at this time,” he emphasised, “we need to offer our students a way to engage in relationships between the arts, humanities and sciences. One trusts that a conference of this nature will raise the consciousness of arts, language and the media in building up our societies and our intellectual base.”

Mr Enver Surty, the Deputy Minister of Education, delivering the opening address on behalf of the Minister, affirmed the importance of the discipline. “We cannot afford to neglect the humanities. Where would we be without our language scholars? Where would we be without our schools of drama and music? Where would we be without the critical studies that our historians and other social scientists undertake? We would be living in a diminished society, a society without a mind and a soul.”

Production of knowledge through academic journals questioned

The first plenary lecture of the conference, Notes on English Studies and Postcoloniality, was delivered by Professor Abebe Zegeye, Primedia Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at UNISA. Raising some questions relating to the production of knowledge through academic journals such as the English Academy Review, the Journal of Literary Studies and Scrutiny, Professor Zegeye noted that there is no journal that can contain all that which cries for capturing in the totalities of African people’s lives. He felt, however, that shrinking thematic concerns were being voiced by literary journals, the creative writers of Southern Africa, and even by critics. “It seems to me that there is now studied contempt for grand narratives such as Africanisation, Renaissance, matters relating to xenophobia and genocide and a movement towards the reclusive individual egos. The struggles that constitute the main stuff of people’s experience are jettisoned: critics follow writers, pursuing techniques as if techniques have no content.”

The English Academy Thomas Pringle Award for best educational article was awarded to Dr Ambrose Chimbganda of the University of Botswana. Professor Rosemary Gray, UP Professor Emerita and UNISA alumnus and former staff member, received the Gold Medal for distinguished service to English over a lifetime, as well as a certificate as Honorary Life Vice-President of the Academy. Professor Grey also co-convened the conference with Professor Zodwa Motsa from the UNISA Department of English Studies.