In November this year, the University of Pretoria (UP) held the 2021 Academic Achievers’ Award ceremony. Deserving researchers were awarded for their academic excellence and for sharing their knowledge with the world. Among the winners was Professor Henning Melber, who received the Conversation Africa Award for the highest number of articles published.

Professor Melber is a political scientist and sociologist with a strong academic career. He received the title of Extraordinary Professor here at UP and became an associate professor at the Centre for Africa Studies at the University of the Free State. Born in Germany, he immigrated to Namibia in his youth. Germany and Namibia were politically turbulent in the late 1900s. Growing up in these countries during such times exposed him to social injustices and motivated him to join leftist, anti-apartheid movements. He stated, “I was always motivated by my individual biographical experiences and an exploration of my own identities and also of political commitments emerging over time in the environment of West Berlin with leftist student movements.”

He was exiled from Namibia for his activism and went on to study politics in Germany. That is where he began his political writing. When asked what motivated him to become politically active in media, he said, “From the beginning, even before I finished my studies, I started to write on apartheid, campaigning for boycotts, and other activities. This was anti-apartheid activism for Namibia, as well as for South Africa”. He added: “Acquiring knowledge and transmitting it, not only for an academic career, but also to use it in a more popular way to create awareness for people was an integral part of what I did from the beginning.”

Professor Melber strongly believes that researchers must share their knowledge with the public: “Academics should not look down on public media, but rather make use of the opportunity to transmit their accumulated knowledge to a wider audience. It doesn’t help if you write one of the most brilliant books in the world and it ends up on a shelf with nobody knowing about it,” he said. However, some say that scientists should not be political. As a political scientist, this puts Professor Melber in a tough position. When Professor Melber was asked for his opinion on this, he stated: “I strongly believe that when it comes to issues of society, declaring oneself neutral or non-partisanis also taking a stance because you withdraw from participating. It would be like not voting during political elections – by taking this stance, you’ve made a political decision.”

Giving accurate information is just as important as dealing with misinformation. The professor emphasised that scholars must play a role in dealing with misinformation. “Misinformation is another scholarly challenge; you need to counter fake-news in a credible way. So actually, scholars have a social responsibility,” said Professor Melber.

The professor also had wisdom to share for anyone trying to get into media. “Your language needs to be concise, and it needs to be understandable. You need to translate complex matters into language that people who aren’t familiar with the subject are able to understand and willing to follow. You need to elicit the following reaction: ‘Oh, I’ve never heard about that, but it sounds interesting!’”