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The Chair aims to bridge the gap in awareness between the in-depth international studies of the Holocaust and the genocides in Africa, providing an Africanist perspective to this field. Its main emphasis is on research and the history of Genocide in Africa to examine what some refer to as the “silent history of Africa”. To this end the Chair will collaborate with other universities, such as the University of Rwanda. It will also work in partnership with the Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles in The United States (US) to develop a body of research as well as testimonies from victims of Genocide in Africa.

This year Prof Abebe Segeye, head of the department, made several visits to various Holocaust institutions in the US, establishing relationships for the UNISA/Primedia Chair. Good progress was also made on his compilation of a “World First” encyclopedia on genocide studies, and he also collaborated with Yale University (US) to complete the publication. Forward planning on a formal student enrolment study programme continues.

The Senior Research Officer, Dr Anthony Court, worked with the Johannesburg Holocaust Centre and SAJS, and organised a student tour of Rwanda in August. The tour gave full scholarships to 15 successful applicants from UNISA, the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Joahnnesburg and the University of Pretoria. The tour included day trips to major sites. This pilot project was so successful that UNISA expressed interest in contributing to the funding of it next year. Plans to make this an annual event are being looked at. Dr Court also plans to establish an exchange programme with Rwandan students to South Africa.

Pre- and post-trip, two panel discussions were hosted, as well as several workshops and seminars for the participants at UNISA and at the Johannesburg Holocaust Centre. There was also an essay competition. The winning essays will be published in a special edition of a local journal in 2009. Dr Court won a full scholarship to Poland in July from the New School in New York, which allowed him to attend three weeks of lectures on Genocide and the Holocaust at Krakow University. The lecture series offered him the opportunity to meet the leading Hannah Arendt specialists as well as academics and students from the Americas, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Following the course he spent a week in the Auschwitz archives, as well as visiting Treblinka and Sobibor. He also delivered a paper at the new Katowice Genocide Institute near Auschwitz.

THE ETERNAL FLAME

The structure of the flame represents an island of which the centre has a dual function. The calabash represents the UNISA symbol or logo. The flame represents the human spirit and the fact that it is an eternal flame, so extinguishing the flame will symbolise extinguishing a human life. The pool underneath the sculptural figure is created out of black charcoal granite. If the flame is ever put out then there will be no reflection on the surface, creating the appearance of a dead person’s eye. The idea is to keep the flame alive not only as a symbol, but also for the appearance of the structure and what it represents: the extinguishing of a human’s life. On the cardinal compass points surrounding the pool are four pillars, representing every corner of the globe where people are turning their backs and doing nothing. On top of the pillars are four figures made of rusting barbed wire, symbolising fleeing refugees who are being denied access into another country. The figures are looking up and away from what is happening beneath them.

The idea around the structure is to represent what actually happened so people can get an idea of the inhumanness of the burnt bodies of Genocide. People should not have an easy feeling when looking at the structure; rather they should feel uncomfortable and find it difficult to look at.

The Eternal Flame to the Human Spirit is positioned in a way to attract the attention of all who pass by as well as the first phase of introduction to the Holocaust and Genocide museum, which is designed to create awareness and to educate the public, in particular school children, about tolerance and diversity.

The Primedia Holocaust and Genocide Chair, in collaboration with the Primedia Foundation, are planning an official launch of the Sunny Town development with a high profile fundraising dinner in the later part of 2009. The dinner will be preceded by the lighting of the “Eternal Flame to the Human Spirit” by eminent persons. The Primedia Foundation has contributed R500 000.00 towards the Flame project.