Chidi Achebe to deliver fourth Africa Day Lecture May 31
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Chidi Achebe, a professor of medicine in the United States, will on 31 May deliver this year’s Africa Day Lecture at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, four days after receiving his Bard College Award announced in March.
“The award honors scientists whose achievements demonstrate the breadth of concern and depth of commitment that characterized these pioneer physicians,” said Leon Botstein, President of Bard College in New York.
Achebe held a distinguished professorial chair for several years at Bard College.
He is the Chief Executive Officer of African Integrated Development Enterprise (AIDE) that works to bring together international companies and expertise to create sustainable integrated delivery of medical care on the African continent.
AIDE is building 18 health facilities across Africa, starting with Nigeria and Kenya. AIDE is equally dedicated to the development of the continent focusing on healthcare, education, agriculture and telecommunications.
Achebe has also served as President and CEO of Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center, medical director of Whittier Street Health Center, and assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine – all in Boston, Massachusetts.
He received an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, MD at Dartmouth Medical School, and MBA at Yale University’s School of Management.
Intellectuals as Nation Builders
Achebe will deliver the Fourth Stellenbosch University (SU) Annual Africa Day Lecture, titled “Intellectuals as Nation Builders”.
SU said his unique implementation of “medicine without borders” has been recognised with prestigious awards including the Dartmouth College Martin Luther King Award, and the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science, to be awarded at the Bard College commencement ceremony on 27 May.
Achebe has been praised by Anambra Governor Charles Soludo, an economics professor, as “a pan-Africanist of the finest hue” and for following in his father Chinua Achebe’s footsteps in his commitment to Africa’s emancipation.
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SU Annual Africa Day Lecture
The SU Annual Africa Day Lecture series has been hosted every May since 2018 by the Vice-Chancellor, and coordinated jointly by the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest and the Centre for Collaboration in Africa.
The lecture seeks to bring distinguished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, public intellectuals, and practitioners from a range of disciplines across the globe to SU to lead public conversations that will expand understanding of the role of the university in these changing and troubled times.
Through the series, speakers open up dialogue on topics that can contribute to knowledge production within the academy, while also having some impact on public debate and influencing audiences at the broader level of civil society.
Past Annual Africa Day Lectures
Third
Third Annual Africa Day Lecture: A Conversation with Tsitsi Dangarembga and Professors Tamar Garb and Siona O’Connell – 27 May 2021.
Dangarembga as the keynote speaker speaks on “Remaining Human”.
This event moved the Annual Africa Day Lecture to the virtual space, necessitated by the outbreak of the pandemic.
Second
Second Annual Africa Day Lecture by Judge Thina Siwendu – 30 May 2019.
Siwendu reflects on the problem of youth suicide in post-apartheid South Africa from the perspective a mother’s loss of her child through death by suicide.
Inaugural
Inaugural Annual Africa Day Lecture by Professor Jonathan Jansen – 25 May 2018.
Jansen examines the record of schools established after the dawn of South African democracy in 1994 and explores whether schools can build an inclusive African identity.
About Stellenbosch University
SU is among South Africa’s leading tertiary institutions based on research output, student pass rates and rated scientists, and is recognised internationally as an academic institution of excellence.
It boasts the highest weighted research output per full-time academic staff member of all South African universities and the second-highest number of scientists in South Africa who have been rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF).
It also has the highest student success rate in the country.
SU is cementing its reputation as a world-class institution. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, SU is one of the top 300 universities in the world, and among the top 20 in BRICS countries.
It features among the world’s elite institutions in 10 of the 36 subjects featured in the QS World University Rankings by Subject for 2015.
SU was also included in the 2014 CWTS Leiden Ranking, which measures the scientific performance of 750 major universities worldwide.
With 18 research chairs under the NRF South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChi), the university is regarded as a leader in the fields of biomedical tuberculosis research and management, wine biotechnology, animal sciences and mathematical biosciences.
Another SARChi chair, in the field of invasion biology, is shared between SU and the University of Venda, one of SU’s many partnerships, both local and international.
SU also participates in various international academic networks.