??Stellenbosch 肆客足球 (SU) recently celebrated Africa 肆客足球 Day by shining a spotlight on its varied and impactful research and collaborative activities with its African partners through the African Collaboration Grant (ACG) during the recent Academic Network on Inclusiveness, Multilingualism and Excellence (ANIME) conference, showcasing the university's commitment to research excellence and partnerships.
Africa 肆客足球 Day is celebrated on 12 November each year to commemorate the establishment of the Association of African Universities in 1967 and to highlight the contributions of the African higher education sector to the development of the continent.
Dr Nico Elema, Director of the Centre for Collaboration in Africa (CCA) at SU International (SUI), delivered the welcome and Introductory remarks.
“As we celebrate Africa 肆客足球 Day, we aim to remain relevant on the African continent and in the region of southern Africa, but also to have an impact in Stellenbosch and its surrounds.
“When we established the CCA in 2016, we took a conscious decision to take a approach of working with and learning from other African Universities, both large and small, and to continue building partnerships."
Elema then facilitated a discussion involving various academics at SU who shared their collaborative experiences with their African colleagues which was made possible through the support of the CCA's Africa Collaboration Grant (ACG). The ACG offers grants in a number of categories to support collaborative activities with bilateral partners in Africa. These categories include research visits, conference participation, hosting senior visiting scholars, and providing support for postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Prof Lorna Dreyer, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education – Towards contextual relevance for Africa
Dreyer, whose research focus is on inclusive education and training support from a human rights and social justice perspective, expanded on her collaborations with colleagues in three Sub-Saharan African countries – Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Namibia.
“The Nigerian collaboration realised a project called, 'Women in Academia: Work-life balance in neo-liberal academia', which showed that, although their contexts might differ, women in Africa generally face similar challenges. I believe this project can draw attention to the contextual realities of women in academia who are in pursuit of excellence in their own professional development and the development of others.
“Another project was with the Reformed Church 肆客足球 of Zimbabwe. It started off with a series of discussions and we ended with an international conference on inclusive education. I delivered the keynote address at the conference and also played a role in editing and getting the conference proceedings published with the help of SUI.
“I also conducted a comparative project with the 肆客足球 of Namibia called, 'Experiences of Students with Specific Learning Disabilities'. This research provides insight into students' experiences to promote authentic inclusive education and provide support in the African context."
Dreyer said that the projects have played a big part in shaping her own pedagogy, which she now views as “an inter-relationship between the learning and the teaching, a reciprocal process of what's happening in the learning space".
She added that the collaborations also contributed to her introducing reflective and reflexive thinking in her engagements with students, which “helps me to guide them to become critical reflective practitioners who are aware of the need for contextual relevance".
Ms Julia Harper, Project Manager, Faculty of Agrisciences – Reflections from agricultural sciences
Harper said one of the collaborations that the ACG has made possible involves a number of professionals in the agricultural sciences domain from SA, Kenya, Senegal and Zambia.
“Each professional focuses on different elements of the food system, and together we are working to overcome key challenges. Where we might have a burning question and a challenge that we are battling with, somebody else may well have years of experience in this area and we are able to learn from that person. We have found this to be true in a number of areas. We also conduct training in different areas, such as how to develop new food products or how to pitch your ideas."
She added: “The value of partnerships has meant a great deal to a number of my colleagues, but one has to be careful that you don't just chase the cause, but that you nurture the networks and partnerships that you've invested so much of your time and effort in. It's an on-going process."
Prof Thinus Booysen, Department of Industrial Engineering – Electric mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa
Booysen's journey with electric mobility started when he entered into a collaboration with colleagues at Makerere 肆客足球, Uganda.
“In this group, we are about 20 researchers. We look at electric mobility by asking ourselves the following questions: How do we move better in Sub-Saharan Africa? How do we do this transition to electric mobility and leverage all the opportunities that it brings, such as job creation, improved mobility, safety and efficiency? Basically, our work involves looking at the requirements for electric vehicles in the African context and the aspects that need to be considered when it comes to energy provision, operations and how to simulate it."
He said his collaboration with his African partners has taught him to treat those interactions with respect.
“We need to be very careful as South Africans that we are not arrogant and that we sufficiently respect our African partners. We tend to think that we are ahead, but I can tell you that is not the case anymore. There are thousands of electric vehicles being made in Kenya, and there are more electric vehicles on the roads in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa than in South Africa. We have already fallen behind.
“We in Sub-Saharan Africa have so many opportunities and so many challenges that we can address. We need to stop fighting one another and start working together to make the most of those opportunities and to solve those challenges."?
Professor Len Hansen, Faculty of Theology
Hansen said the ACG has been instrumental in helping the Faculty of Theology to establish and strengthen links with sister faculties within institutions across Africa.
“The grant enabled us to link with one of the oldest Christian traditions in the world and one that is uniquely African – the Ethiopian Coptic Church. Although this did not lead to a formal agreement between the two institutions, we formed some friendships that have lasted more than a decade. However, it gave us a foothold into Ethiopia to work with other denominations and institutions such as the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in Addis Ababa.
“In addition, the grant helped us to get involved with NetACT (Network for African Congregational Theology), which represents 54 member institutions in 15 African countries. Our flagship project that we introduced was the establishment of the NetACT internet portal in 2017 which offers free access to library, learning and teaching and virtual learning resources. This project has had a huge impact in helping especially the smaller institutions to survive and continue their teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Closing
Elema brought the celebrations to a close by highlighting a few success factors which he believes are important when you work with other African institutions.
“The first is context matters. Africa is not one country. Support local and regional programmes within larger African programmes to drive the African agenda. The second is equitable partnerships. Support partnerships that drive local research and capacity development agendas. It's not about a 50/50 or equal partnership, but a theoretical space where we start saying you give everything you've got and I'll give everything I've got and where aspects like trust and resources come into play. The third is institutional commitment, whereby you create an enabling environment by supporting and strengthening local institutions. And lastly, personal commitment. This involves embracing Afro-optimism by supporting local established researchers and emerging scholars through mobility exchange, think tanks and capacity development."
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