UWC 360 Issue 4-Draft 4 3/13/13 8:07 AM Page 7 C
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UWC is the first university in South Africa to incorporate a 3D Highly Immersive Visualization Environment (HIVE) lab
Meet the Members
ON THE MUSIC FRONT
of the Alumni Association
Meet the Members of the Alumni Association
South African and Indian musical fusion Art and History in the form of sound UWC has played a pivotal role in the production of an audio masterpiece in the form of a musical collaboration between various South African and Indian artists.
Dr Petra Abrahamse (PhD in Psychology, 2000) Dr Petra Abrahamse is a modern day good samaritan. At age sixty-five, Abrahamse, who obtained her PhD in psychology at UWC in 2000, is still very active. She practices as a psychologist for children with learning challenges and adults with family and marriage problems in Mitchells Plain and Rondebosch. She also volunteers her services to the Cape Town Child Welfare Society. “My purpose is to assist people in dealing with the reality of their situations by removing the obstacles blocking their path towards selfactualisation,” says Abrahamse. Abrahamse is assisting and encouraging families to re-establish old-fashioned values within their homes. “I advise families to sit together and chit-chat over dinner. I tell them about the negative effects of television and that children learn by listening to older people talk. That is where all our common sense comes from”. Born in George, Abrahamse studied and worked at various institutions around the country. She came to UWC to do her internship for her masters degree before enrolling for her doctoral studies in 1994. Due to apartheid, Abrahamse says that she had never felt at home at other universities until she came to UWC. “When I came to UWC I really felt it was where I belonged and I decided that I’ll never straighten my hair again,” jokes Abrahamse. Her advice to UWC students who crave success was to remain focused on the task at hand.
Composite
Insurrections, a CD comprising of twelve compositions put together by fifteen musicians and poets from both countries, was produced by UWC’s Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) and South Africa History Online (SAHO). It was launched by the School of Cultured Creative Expressions of Ambedkar University in Delhi (AUD) on 30 January 2013. The Dean of the Faculty of Cultured and Creative Expressions at AUD, Professor Shivaji Pannikar, spoke about the importance of such collaborations and commended the project for fusing individual and collective creativity. The CD was created out of a performance by members of the Insurrections Ensemble, during the Lineages of Freedom Festival, held at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town, in October 2012. Ari Sitas, Sazi Dlamini, Neo Muyanga, Sumangala Damodaran, Tapan Mullick, Claude Cozens, Tina Schouw and Malika Ndlovu are some of the artists and poets responsible for creating this musical sensation. At the launch Sitas, a popular South African sociologist, writer and one of the curators of the project, spoke about the aesthetic and social importance of the project. “The project tried the difficult route of moving beyond language, solidarity and defiance in order to create compositions that spoke across barriers,” said Sitas. “It showed that another world is possible and that it will most certainly be about music too”.
Wiseman Gabavana (BA in English, 2008) Wiseman Gabavana, who obtained his Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English at UWC in 2008, has published two books. His first book, Kazi kungenxa kabani na (Whose fault is it) was published in 2009 and was so popular that it was adapted to a stage production that was performed by UWC students at the Ithuba Arts Festival in 2010 as well as at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown a year later. In the book, Gabavana, who works for the City of Cape Town, argues that parents should distribute their inheritance equally among their children instead of practicing the old-fashioned belief of leaving everything to the eldest son. Gabavana explains that he had a tough time publishing his first book and had to resort to self-publishing because no one took him seriously. “A human being is like a spring,” he says. “If you push it down and keep suppressing it be careful, because once you stop it will spring open”. His second book, Umahluko (The difference), was published in 2012 and demonstrates that there should be a difference both in the actions and thoughts of a boy during the transformation process from a boy to a man. This year, Gabavana, is finalising his third book and is working on the translation of all his published works, so that they could be made accessible to everyone. While at UWC, Gabavana, who hails from the Eastern Cape town of Tsomo, was a Student Repre-sentative Council (SRC) member responsible for of community outreach.