Jonas Gwangwa embodied South Africa’s struggle for a national culture

Posted on January 27, 2021

Through 65 years on stage, Jonas Gwangwa’s playing contributed to every genre of South African jazz. Overseas, he was hailed as player, producer and composer.

‘UP gave me a solid foundation’ – Miss SA Shudufhadzo Musida revisits her alma mater

Posted on December 08, 2020

Reigning Miss South Africa Shudufhadzo Musida, a University of Pretoria (UP) alumna, recently visited UP’s Future Africa institute and campus at the invitation of Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Tawana Kupe, who hosted a luncheon and discussion in honour of her crowning achievement.

UP’s Dr Macqueen points out impact of imaginative project of European colonialism on Polish society in seminar on Shaka Zulu

Posted on November 04, 2020

On 20 October 2020, Dr Ian Macqueen, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies, presented the paper, ‘Shaka Zulu in the Polish People’s Republic: Interrogating Cultural Exchanges in the Late Cold War’.

‘In Gods Naam’: Unsettling sacred cows and asking questions about the role of the NGK in endorsing apartheid policy

Posted on October 22, 2020

Religion remains more closely linked to politics than most people would like to admit, said panellists during a discussion following the Cape Town premiere of In Gods Naam, a short documentary directed by Dr Siona O’Connell, of the University of Pretoria (UP).

UP partners with SA Heritage Publishers to bring ancestral stories to a wider readership

Posted on October 06, 2020

UP has partnered with South African Heritage Publishers to contribute to their series of illustrated history books called Our Story that offers fascinating insight into the lives of South Africa’s ancestral people. Read more:

‘Heritage Day must acknowledge the trauma of the dispossessed’

Posted on September 24, 2020

This pandemic has revealed the deep fault lines in democratic South Africa, but, equally, it has opened up a crucial opportunity to think deeply about who we are and how we have come to be here.

Heritage Day 2020 – Message from the Vice-Chancellor and Principal

Posted on September 23, 2020

Heritage Day on 24 September is an opportunity to celebrate the unique and diverse histories and cultures which have come to form the basis of South Africans’ post-apartheid national identity.

What to look out for this Heritage Month at the UP Museums

Posted on September 17, 2020

As South Africa celebrates Heritage Month in September, a special focus is placed on museums and other cultural institutions whose mandate is to act as custodians of our collective artistic heritage.