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STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM TO HOST STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY AND NELSON MANDELA COLLOQUIUM ONLINE FOR THE FIRST TIME

Date of proceedings: 12 November 2020              
Time: 14:00

To attend: StellenboschUniversityMuseum\Nelsonmandelacolloquim2020    

The Stellenbosch University Museum, in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Museum, will again host its annual Colloquium in which academics, students, politicians and the community will have an opportunity to reflect on pressing issues, such as gender-based violence (GBV) and the politics of forgiveness in South Africa.

The Colloquium will take place on 12 November 2020. This year it will be held online for the very first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This means interested parties can attend this live event irrespective of their location. The event is free to attend and anyone interested in attending can register by clicking on the link provided above.

This Colloquium is a continuation of a partnership between the Stellenbosch University Museum and the Nelson Mandela Museum as part of critical debates on issues regarding human rights, democracy, education, freedom and justice. The goal of the Colloquium is to help advance South Africa's democratic gains through dialogue on the academic aspirations of the University, and the memory and advancement of Nelson Mandela's aspirations of a South Africa in which people of all races live side by side.

The main speakers at the event, as well as more information on their topics, are as follows:

• Dr Tozama Qwebani-Ogunleye: Making GBV unacceptable 
  
  Nelson Mandela once said, “Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression". This freedom is the basis upon which the masses and the individual, the true democrat and the true individuality, man and woman, can meet without antagonism or opposition.
  
   Gender-based violence is one of the world's most extreme violations of human rights. Dr Qwebani-Ogunleye will be discussing power relations in the context of sociocultural definitions of masculinity, femininity and economic relations from the perspective of the perpetrator. The deep pain caused by the perpetrator can shatter a human being for life and, in most cases, this is done at the hands of and in situations and places of trust, for example in the family, or at school, work or church. Education and awareness of GBV are critical in the fight against it. 

• Dr Tozama Qwebani-Ogunleye is the head of the Institute of Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Medicine at the Vaal University of Technology, where traditional medicine is authenticated scientifically with the ultimate aim of production for consumption. She holds a BSc Honours and a Master's degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Cape Town.
  

• Prof Dion A Forster: The (im)possibility of forgiveness? Nelson Mandela and the politics of forgiveness in South Africa

Prof Forster's talk will focus on the synthesis of some aspects of two of the projects that he has been working on at the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology at Stellenbosch University over the past few years. 

 He will be discussing the complex and contested role of notions such as forgiveness among South Africans in relation to the ongoing injustice of colonialism and apartheid. He will also discuss the relationship between social identity and forgiveness among black and white South African Christians.

 These aspects will be considered in relation to the person and work of Nelson Mandela, and how he dealt with the past and looked towards a future for South Africa.​

• Prof Forster is the director of the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology and chair of the Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology at Stellenbosch University. He is an associate professor in Systematic Theology and Ethics. His most recent books are The (im)possibility of forgiveness? An empirical intercultural Bible reading of Matthew 18.15-35; Reconciliation, forgiveness and violence in Africa; and African public theology.
  
  

 For more information, please contact Ricky Brecht at 0218083660 OR e-mail him at rickyb@sun.ac.za