Speaking at Unisa's 5th Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair Founders Lecture themed "Pan-Africanism: revisiting (looking back) and reimagining (looking forward)", Prof Puleng Segalo said the chair is deliberate in embarking on projects that attend to the revisiting and retelling of African stories. Read more

Corrections facilities are supposed to help rehabilitate offenders. However, during apartheid, South Africa’s correctional system was a pillar of the repressive, discriminatory laws. It was used to punish those – mainly the black majority – perceived to be a threat to the white minority regime. Read more

In the first three weeks of that lockdown the Gender Based Violence Command Centre, designed to support victims of gender-based violence (GBV), recorded more than 120,000 victims. Also in its 2019/2020 crimes statistics, the South African Police Services indicated that an average of 116 rape cases were reported each day. Read more

Africa’s position in the global knowledge production ecosystem needs to change significantly. African knowledge systems, languages, knowledge actors and institutions must take their rightful place in global thought processes. Even more critical is the central place that such repositioning is bound to have in upholding African dignity. In this essay, we argue that the current global ecosystem of knowledge production exhibits multiple layers of injustices and inequities entrenched in its orientations, institutions, policy and legal frameworks and practices. Read more

Speaking at the launch of a new Africa Charter for advancing transformative research collaborations between Africa and the rest of the world, Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, said that the ambitious initiative creates a platform to reframe collaborations in the spirit of mutual respect among and shared aspirations of participants. Read more

Transactional sex – the exchange of consensual sex for material support like gifts, money or food – occurs on university campuses in many parts of the world. South Africa is no exception. Some scholars have highlighted the importance of understanding transactional sexual relationships beyond seeing it only (or mostly) as a way for young women to mitigate poverty, or because they want to enjoy the advantages of what is perceived as an elite and glamorous lifestyle. It’s more complicated than that. Read more

Attended by South African students and emerging scholars from Unisa, the Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair recently hosted the Oprah Winfrey Morehouse fellows from the United States of America, marking the first of such student-focused education and cultural exchange event hosted by the Research Chair since its inception in 2021. Read more

Amma Darko is one of Ghana’s leading novelists, known for exploring gritty social issues and the lives of women. There is much to be unearthed in the childhood narrative of deprivation and danger that she tackles in her 2003 work Faceless  Faceless is the story of an investigation into the death of a young girl called Baby T, a child sex worker whose naked body is found dumped behind a marketplace, beaten and mutilated. Read more

One of the many strong messages shared at a recent symposium hosted by Unisa's Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair, themed Women, peace and security, was that South Africans should stop being silent about the nightmares that confront them, and that both young and old should fight for true emancipation. Read more

Prof Puleng Segalo has recently earned two appointments, namely, the 2023 African Affiliate Fellow by the Kansas African Studies Center (University of Kansas, US) and the 2023 Research Associate by the Institute of African Studies (University of Ghana). Read more