We visited the University of the Western Cape, today where my lovely bride delivered some of the opening remarks and chaired a session. She was a co-host, our university logo was on the literature and the International Association for Communication and Sport, where she is the executive director, was one of the co-sponsors.
I wrote a tiny bit of her opening remarks, and listened to the scholars. We heard about research on sports reporters, owned media in Germany, various papers soft power in sporting events (which I talk about a lot in class), Simone Biles’ portrayal in German tabloids, crisis management by sports leagues (which I’ll talk about in a class this fall), memories of Munich, and several others. I took a lot of notes, and photographed several slides which will come in handy in my own thinking and teaching.
Dr. Marion Keim, who is a professor at UWC and has words like “UNESCO” and “Olympic” in her actual title, put this together with IACS to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue on the ways sport shapes societies, both locally and globally. The whole thing was quite nicely done. More people should take part. Maybe a lot of people watched on the livestream.
The symposium was held in the Western Cape’s Public Health building, which had some wonderful art on display.
These are papier mache bowls made by women from Wola Nani, which is Xhosa for “we embrace and develop one another. This is a non-profit program bringing relief to the HIV crisis in the Western Cape. It focuses on women and children, builds skills, personal coping strategies and a revenue stream. Wola Nani crafts became a self-help program to achieve better qualities of life.
These are papier mache place mats from Wola Nani.
The sign says this is from the top section is by Johanna Chauke and the artist that created the bottom section is Selinah Skhosana. This is an embroidery. This is part of a project called Mapula, which means “mother of rain.” There are more than 80 needleworkers making their living through the Mapula project.
They do custom works. I wonder if I could get some embroidery done like those beautiful roller and jacana birds I saw in the Kruger.
These are Mbenge, woven lids for clay beer pots. They are made from llal palm and natural dyes from Zululand. The matching baskets, not pictured were made in Zimbabwe.
These also had some wall installations without signs.
After a day of presentations and networking and some delicious catering, it was time to head back across town. And I guess they just have amazing sunsets here every day. This is two in a row, anyway.
We caught a ride with one of the local scholars. It was the driver and one of their students in the front seat. Three Americans in the backseat and, somehow, none of us died. But I found myself thinking, “After we crash, and we find out that everyone is OK, this is going to be a hilarious story. And we’ll have a nice view while we wait for the police to show up.”
But we did not crash. Everyone was safe. It was still hilarious (I am omitting details in the interest of brevity). And we still had great views.
We went to a mall tonight, because I needed a jacket, because the winter is rolling in here, and I may need a jacket tomorrow. It’s hard to pack adequately for a long trip as the seasons change. The forecasts I saw a week or more ago aren’t what we’re seeing for tomorrow. Plus, we’re going to see penguins!
