Like the rest of the continent, the University will acknowledge the annual Africa Day by celebrating this important event on 24 May 2024. The actual date of the event will be on 25 May. The 2024 event’s theme is: ” Educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa.”
The month of May is recognised as Africa month, a time when the continent of Africa commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, in Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa. The event called for unity among African countries. The OAU was renamed African Unity (AU) in 2002 and has 55 members.
Dr Buyi Makhanya, Deputy Director of Teaching and Learning Development Centre’s (TLDC) Academic Literacy and Language Unit (ALLU), and organiser of the event, said “Africa Month seeks to increase the appreciation and demand for arts and culture, goods and services, and to stimulate competitive markets for trade among African countries”. Dr Makhanya said her division’s role would be to encourage staff and students to “observe, commemorate, and celebrate the day through speeches, dialogues, and conversations relevant to the day, dance, poetry, African song, African cuisine, among others. Dr Makhanya implored staff and students to actively participate in the event.
The event is expected to take place at the University’s Anniversary Lane.
Dr Makhanya said that even before 1963, many initiatives were taken by Africans – both from the continent and in its diaspora for Africa, to regain its rightful place in the world. South Africans are also found among those earlier generations who made enormous contributions towards this effort. Dr Makhanya said singled out a speech by Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme in 1906, the “Regeneration of Africa”. Dr Makhanya said this speech would be echoed by the generations that followed and enhanced through several initiatives aimed at the decolonisation and regeneration of the continent. Please click on https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/1906-isaka-seme-regeneration-africa/ to access this self-assuring speech that Dr Seme, a co-founder of the African National Congress (ANC), which he delivered to the Royal African Society in London.