Ambassador visits the University of Fort Hare
02.06.2013 / 18:04 | Aktualizováno: 02.06.2013 / 18:17
(This article expired 03.06.2014.)
On 2 May 2013 Ambassador B. Fajkusová visited the University of Fort Hare. She met not only the dignitaries of the University, but also a group of students and teachers from the Mendel University in Brno, who were staying in Alice for research purposes for a month.
In East London Ambassador B. Fajkusová met the Vice Chancellor Dr. Mvuyo Tom, in Alice Deputy Vice Chancellor: Academic Affairs prof. Larry Obi and Dean: Management and Commerce prof. Themba Mjoli. She also met a a group of students and teachers from the Mendel University in Brno. The Mendel University has been developing a functioning cooperation with the Fort Hare for several years already. Before leaving Fort Hare, Ambassador accompanied by prof. Francois Lategan visited the experimental workshop producing dried vegetable soups and university milk farm.
The University of Fort Hare is located in Eastern Cape, the main campus in the city of Alice (approx. 7000 students) and the other in Bhisho and East London (5000 students each). The University of Fort Hare has a long tradition. Already from the mid 19th century Alice was a regional centre of learning, Lovendale Missionary Institution where the New Testament was first translated info isiXhosa and published. In 1916 the South African Native College was established and it became the only tertiary level institution for black students in English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. It retained this status until mid 1950s. It provided education also to black students from Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria. Many of leaders of liberation movement in Africa got their education there, including Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu. From 1959 the University was forced into a new role of training the administrative manpower for Bantustans. Nowadays, the University of Fort Hare belongs to important educational and research institutions in South Africa.