North-West University celebrates its contributions to research on Africa Day

The North-West University (NWU) celebrated Africa Day on Tuesday, 25 May 2021, by honouring research the university has contributed to the international field of science, in a webinar event. 

May is Africa month, a time when the African continent commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union (AU). The AU’s vision is an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in a global arena.

The Africa Day celebration webinar was hosted by Clement Manoko, the executive director of corporate relations and marketing at NWU. The event commenced with a moment of silence for those in Africa who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“It is incumbent upon us not to look back and continue to lament, but to find solutions,” said Manoko.

The NWU has been a part of a number of scientific developments and breakthroughs over the years, listed in a news release. “Research at the North-West University is anchored by our commitment to the African continent. We believe that knowledge generation is the foundation of development,” the release states. 

These include developments in the fields of African indigenous knowledge, engineering, data science, and healthcare. 

In 2019, NWU alumnus Dr Motheo Koitsiwe obtained Africa’s first PhD in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), focussing on African indigenous astronomy. 

Dr Abiodun Olusola Omotayo and Prof Adeyemi Oladapo Aremu from the NWU’s food security and safety research niche area, published a paper in the Food and Energy Security journal in 2020, in which they highlighted the benefits that indigenous fruit can contribute to food security.

Prof Leenta Grobler, acting director of business development and stakeholder engagement at the engineering faculty at NWU, was part of the team who pioneered ventilator remote technology during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This technology is used to remotely monitor a Covid-19 patient’s ventilator in intensive care and was awarded second place in the Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) Innovation Competition in 2020.

Grobler said, “here in Africa we need to be, and are, very creative plan makers. We know how to get by with little to no resources, and we very often don’t have the option to take the easy route.” She added that they aspire to create scientific solutions not only on a national level, but on a level that many developing countries can also benefit from.

“We don’t have the luxury of only thinking of South Africa, we think of what will be applicable to the rest of Africa, and to the rest of the developing world,” Grobler said.