Research Articles

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/1548

Since its inception in 2006, the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape has emerged as a crucial meeting point for researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences throughout Southern Africa. The Centre strives to develop unifying and interdisciplinary themes in the humanities that will enable a renewal of its study in Africa.

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Browsing by Author "Bidandi, Fred"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Insights and current debates on community engagement in higher education institutions: Perspectives on the University of the Western Cape
    (SAGE Publications, 2021) Bidandi, Fred; Ambe, Anthony Nforh; Mukong, Claudia Haking
    This study investigated the insights and current debates on community engagement in higher education institutions with specific reference to the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. The article argues that although community engagement seems to present some challenges, it has become an integral part of higher education in South Africa and beyond. The article examines community engagement in higher education institutions and evaluates its contributions based on the research question. The article evaluates community engagement from the perspective of the UWC, community, and students. Data were collected through semi-structured with key informants. In total, 12 participants participated in the interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The results of the study show that community engagement is dependent on institutions� relationships built between particular communities, which are easily lost if the people involved change. The results also show that community engagement has become a requisite for promotion and policy development. However, it reveals that issues of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) often take time affecting students and researchers. Moreover, the findings indicate that there is no standard procedure for community engagement as departments, individual lecturers, and students have unique and different interests.
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    Understanding refugee durable solutions by international players: Does dialogue form a missing link?
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2018) Bidandi, Fred
    This study evaluates durable solutions in relation to refugees from EastAfrica. It particularly focuses on the Great Lakes countries of Rwanda, Burundi,Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The study is based on the conviction thatthese four countries have never had peaceful transfer of power which in essence hasbeen a major contributing factor to political violence that has caused forced massmigration in the region to this day. The use of force or military suppression has been anorm since independence of these countries in the early 1960s. This suppression hascontinuously forced many people to fleetheir homes facing abuse of their humanrights, dictatorship, persecution, indiscriminate arrests, ethnic wars and politicalviolence.
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    Understanding refugee durable solutions by international players: Does dialogue form a missing link?
    (Cogent OA, 2018) Bidandi, Fred
    This study evaluates durable solutions in relation to refugees from East Africa. It particularly focuses on the Great Lakes countries of Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The study is based on the conviction that these four countries have never had peaceful transfer of power which in essence has been a major contributing factor to political violence that has caused forced mass migration in the region to this day. The use of force or military suppression has been a norm since independence of these countries in the early 1960s. This suppression has continuously forced many people to flee their homes facing abuse of their human rights, dictatorship, persecution, indiscriminate arrests, ethnic wars and political violence. Based on a survey used to collect data and in-depth interviews with selected refugees from the Great Lakes region living in Cape Town, South Africa, this paper seeks to understand durable solutions through analysing the current refugee situation. It demonstrates that durable solutions can present both challenges and solutions. It also revisits the concept of durable solutions and seeks to re-evaluate whether these various solutions offer a chance for dialogue. With the aid of a legal perspective on the refugee situation in the region, the paper qualifies the concepts of dialogue as a mechanism for peace building as well as driver for voluntary repatriation.