Three such items form part of the launch and include a book, a CD and a coding kit. All the items have an alumni and institutional link. Visit http://onlineshop.mandela.ac.za and get one or all of these unique items in your shopping cart.
Madiba’s quotes & anecdotes - Book
Mandela University staff member Selwyn Milborrow and alumnus Bevan Boggenpoel BEd’12 BA Hons (Afr & Dutch)’21, released a new book Madiba’s Quotes & Anecdotes: Reflections and Conversations. The book honours Nelson Mandela through his quotes, anecdotes, and the authors’ commentary.
They looked at 27 quotes shared by Nelson Mandela, as a political prisoner, freedom fighter, leader, president, and peacemaker during his lifetime.
Madiba’s quotes and his unique leadership style have always inspired them, and it comes through strongly in the book. The book is dedicated to all South Africans, who found inspiration in Madiba’s resilience, wisdom, humility, and leadership.
The authors hope that their book will positively impact its readers as profoundly as Madiba’s life inspired them to write the book. They were invited to speak about their book at the World Literary Festival in Richmond, South Africa.
Song cycle composed for classical guitar and voice - CD
Rudi Bower BMus’99 MMus’01 DPhil’08, Vincent Oliphant and Lucretia Sikwebu Dip in Music ‘03 offer us the first full original Afrikaans song cycle composed for classical guitar and voice on CD titled Sag Praat van Hierdie Lewe.
The CD features Bower’s music, Oliphant’s poems and mezzo soprano Lucretia Sikwebu’s vocals. The title is a combination of the names of the last two poems in the song cycle; Sag Praat (Speak Softly) and Hierdie Lewe (This Life).
The idea of composing a song cycle based on the work of Oliphant first came to Bower about 2½ years ago. He has been a big fan of Oliphant’s poetry for a long time. Work on the musical settings started in December 2019. The song cycle on the CD comprises 12 settings of Oliphant’s poems, and is composed for classical guitar and mezzo-soprano. The poems were selected in consultation with Oliphant and form a chronological portrayal of a human life cycle representing different life phases and experiences, and explores universal themes ranging from origin to discovery, loss, adversity, healing and renewal.
Written by Roslyn Baatjies
Adapted by Alumni Relations
Rangers coding game – Coding kit
The RANGERS coding game is a fun way to introduce learners (8 years and older) to coding without the need of computers. It uses an app (on Google PlayStore), customized tokens and image recognition to teach learners coding concepts such as loops, if statement, nested structures and optimization, as they go through 35 levels of complexity. With an additional environmental theme, learners are also educated about Game Poaching in Africa.
The original coding app TANKS was developed by Byron Batteson BSc(CS)’17 BSc Hons (CS&IS)’17, as his honours project in Computing Sciences. By using these coding apps, Prof Jean Greyling BSc’86 BScHons’87 MSc’91
PhD’00 and his team of facilitators have reached around 25000 learners across the country. The project has received various national and global accolades from the university, SAB Foundation, UNESCO in Paris as well as the Falling Walls movement in Berlin. By sponsoring coding kits, Alumni can empower schools from disadvantaged communities to introduce coding to their learners.
The kits are R2000 for Foundation Phase and R3000 for learners from Grade 4 upwards. For more information contact
jean.greyling@mandela.ac.za