The North-West University (NWU), in collaboration with the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) hosted its inaugural research webinar on 6 August 2020. This inaugural webinar is the first of a seven-part series aimed at unpacking Covid-19 and its impact on higher education, with insights from humanities, social sciences and indigenous knowledge systems.

The topic of this first webinar was “The Future of African Medicine in Epidemic Preparedness and Response”, with Dr Aunkh H Chabalala, the director of the Indigenous Knowledge-Based Technology Innovation (IKTI) Unit of the Department of Science and Innovation, as the guest speaker.

Dr Chabalala led discussions on the work of the IKTI unit, with a particular focus on the role of African natural medicines in the fight against Covid-19.

“Epidemics have and will always be part of our existence. The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that no one type of a health system or model is sufficient to handle all aspects of preparedness and response,” said Dr Chabalala.  

The potential of African indigenous knowledge systems and medicines in addressing future epidemics – not only in South Africa, but the continent and the world at large – was also discussed during the webinar.

According to Prof Pamela Maseko, executive dean of the Faculty of Humanities, this series of webinars intends to influence teaching, learning and research, and to develop sustainable regional and continental research collaborations.

Among the notable individuals who took part in the live stream event were Prof Dan Kgwadi, NWU vice-chancellor, Prof Pramanathan Govender, NUST deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation, Prof Pamela Maseko, NWU executive dean of Humanities, and Prof Alinah Segobye, dean of Humanities at NUST.

Dr Aunkh H Chabalala, the director of the Indigenous Knowledge-Based Technology Innovation (IKTI) Unit of the Department of Science and Innovation.