- Professor Jonathan Jansen is one of South Africa’s top academics
- He is the rector of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein
- Jansen is passionate about teaching his moral code: reconciliation over retribution
- He is also an author, columnist and the president of the South African Institute of Race Relations
Editor’s note: African Voices is a weekly show that highlights Africa’s most engaging personalities, exploring the lives and passions of people who rarely open themselves up to the camera.
Bloemfontein, South Africa (CNN) — It’s graduation day and professor Jonathan Jansen strolls around the campus of the University of the Free State. Every now and then he stops to greet his gown-clad students, standing out amid a crowd of beaming parents and proudly grinning teachers.
As rector of the formerly all-white educational institution in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Jansen is about to use his graduation ceremony speech to teach his students one last lesson.
“I urge you, in a country where there’s still a lot of rage, never respond by rage, respond through reason and you will have gotten not just a degree, but an education,” says Jansen, looking into the eyes of his students.
Jansen, the first black dean of education at the University of the Free State, is one of South Africa’s leading academics and intellectuals.
Throughout his long and esteemed educational career, which has taken him from teaching biology in high school classrooms to leading one of South Africa’s premier learning institutions, Jansen has been doing everything he can to keep education uppermost in the minds of his students.
“The way out of poverty is through learning and those basic values I have carried with me throughout my leadership,” says Jansen, who is not only an academic but has a wider audience as author, newspaper columnist and the president of the South African Institute of Race Relations.
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Teaching ‘reconciliation over retribution’
The son of a preacher, Jansen was born in Cape Flats, a violent, gang-infested area on the fringes of Cape Town. Life was tough for the future educator, coming of age in a country plagued by apartheid — he says that growing up as a black boy in Cape Flats, there was a “greater chance” of going to prison than going to university.
Recognizing South Africa’s students
But despite the disadvantages of his surroundings, Jansen believes he thrived, thanks largely to the example set by his parents — he described them as “Old Testament figures — my father being Abraham, my mother being Sarah.”
“Here you had parents that raised you in a bubble of decency, of this is what you do and don’t do, this is the direction out of poverty,” he says.
Even though his parents’ families were both materially dispossessed under Apartheid, Jansen says his father and mother raised their children with a strong sense of not being bitter, of being generous to those who are poor and of living a life “without respect for color.”
“That helped us enormously,” he says, “so as I looked outside I could see people killing each other, I witnessed the rape of women, I saw horrible things happening around me, but it was as if it did not happen because in this bubble that Abraham and Sarah raised us, there was an understanding of yourself that was unshakeable — central to that was education.”
Passionate about the transformative power of knowledge, Jansen holds strong opinions about the state of education in South Africa.
He argues that years of maladministration left the country with a failing state education system. He is also regularly heard lambasting the country’s low teaching standards, which allow students in some cases to pass exams with as little as 30%.
Professor Jonathan Jansen
“It’s odd for me because it’s like we don’t get it that in a modern interconnected economy you better be up there playing with the best,” he says. “I take this to be another symptom of how we’ve succumbed to the apartheid message that we can’t, that we’re inferior, that we need to beg for participation and that does much more damage than any politician can imagine.”
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A firm believer of the society’s responsibility to insist on a qualitative education system, Jansen, a Fulbright scholar, assumed his current role at the University of the Free State in 2009 after the institution faced controversy over racism and racial integration.
In 2008, a video surfaced of four white students at the university urging at least five black housekeepers to eat what appeared to be urine-tainted beef stew. The incident sparked national outcry and shed light over South Africa’s racial integration problems.
Citing reconciliation “on a deeply divided campus,” Jansen decided to invite the students to return to the university and resume their studies, regardless of their legal consequences.
“We decided … to offer to the boys an institutional message of forgiveness and acceptance, that they could come back in and participate in a process of reconciliation with the people that they had hurt.”
The students were fined after pleading guilty to deliberately injuring another person’s dignity, but they rebuffed Jansen’s invitation to return to the university.
Jansen was roundly criticized for that gesture, which only served to contribute to his reputation for being outspoken.
“If in the process of forgiving and reconciling, we enable other transformations to take place, which is exactly what happened, then that is a better way to go than the thirst — the understandable thirst let me say — for vengeance,” he says.
Back at the graduation ceremony, Jansen’s moral code of reconciliation over retribution returns once again.
“I don’t care what else you’ve learned at the University of the Free State,” he tells the graduates, “but you know this is a university that in the world is regarded as a place that chooses reconciliation over revenge, that chooses compassion over striking back, that chooses mercy over retaliation.”
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_africa/~3/RkACEsMix2A/index.html
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HRH Princess Elizabeth (center) undergoing instruction at the Auxiliary Territorial Service training centre in April 1945. Courtesy 
Auxiliary Territorial Service: Princess Elizabeth, a 2nd Subaltern in the ATS, wearing overalls and standing in front of an L-plated truck. In the background is a medical lorry. Courtesy Imperial War Museum 
1992 was a bad year for the royal family. In addition to the three royal marriage breakdowns, a fire wreaks havoc in Windsor Castle causing major structural damage. The Queen would later describe this year as “annus horribilis.” 
Criticism of the monarchy peaked in 1997 following the death of Princess Diana in Paris. The royal family was accused of being remote and out of touch with the grief-stricken public. However, after several days of silence, the Queen returned to London, speaking to mourners and admitted there were lessons to be learnt from Diana’s life. 
Since the death of Diana, the queen’s popularity has enjoyed a revival as she continues to preside over what appears to be a softer, more accessible modern royal family. Here, she attends her grandson, Harry’s graduation from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, southern England in 2006. 
Ivan Ljubicic bows out of the Monte Carlo Masters and leaves the stage of men’s professional tennis for the last time at the age of 33. 
ATP chief Brad Drewett (L) and director Zeljiko Franulovic present the Croatian with a special trophy and gift to mark his retirement from tennis. Drewett described Ljubicic as “a true gentleman and ever popular amongst his peers.” 
Ljubicic and wife Aida (holding their son Leonardo) with Slavica Radic, a fellow Croatian who is the former spouse of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone. 
Ljubicic reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in 2006 — a year in which he won three ATP titles, including this one in Vienna. “I felt like I was No. 1 because at the time it was impossible to get to (Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal). It is something I am really proud of. I felt like the No. 1 of normal people,” he said. 
Croatia’s team of (L-R) Mario Ancic, Goran Ivanisevic, Ljubicic, Ivo Karlovic hold the Davis Cup trophy aloft for the first and only time so far after defeating Slovakia 3-2 in Bratislava in 2005. 
The victorious team parade a replica Davis Cup trophy in the main square in Zagreb. 
One of Ljubicic’s finest moments on a tennis court came when he and Ancic secured a bronze medal for Croatia at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the men’s doubles. 
More than a decade ago, more than 265 chimpanzees — including Howard, pictured here in 2002 — spent their days at a New Mexico medical research facility being poked, prodded and confined to small cages. Then, the Save the Chimps foundation intervened. After nearly a decade of rehabilitation, the chimps were transported to a 150-acre sanctuary in Florida. CNN went along with the last group as they made the journey and experienced their first time outdoors. 
Preparing the chimpanzees for their move was bittersweet for Save the Chimps employees, who spent years caring for the animals. “What am I going to do when I get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and they’re not here?” asked Debra Lovelace as she tearfully said goodbye to Bart, a 20-year-old chimpanzee. “It’s been eight years but it’s part of a dream.” That dream is to see these chimpanzees moved to a Florida sanctuary where they will have space to run and play. 
Guilder rests as he begins the long journey to Florida, thanks to the sedation needed to get him into the transport cage. It is the final trip transporting the last nine of the 266 chimpanzees from the Coulston Foundation facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico. 
The specially designed trailer that carries the chimps — a moving billboard for Save the Chimps — has windows allowing the chimpanzees to see out and the public to see in, says the group’s sanctuary director, Jen Feuerstein. The chimpanzees are often heard banging and hollering before they are seen through the tinted windows. 
At a gas station in Slidell, Louisiana, cashier Denise Johnson runs out of the store to greet the chimpanzees. “I get to see them every time they come,” says Johnson, who has greeted most of the 27 groups of chimps as they make their cross-country journey. Realizing that this is the final group of chimpanzees, Johnson starts to cry. “Well I hope they’re happy where they’re going,” she says. 
The trailer stops about every two hours so Feuerstein can check on the chimps, feed them and give them medication. Moesha, Alari and Sarah have to take birth control pills and Bart, Alari and Brody take medicine for anxiety. 
After about 40 hours on the road, the final chimpanzees arrive at their retirement home in Fort Pierce, Florida. Roady and Bradley run around the cage hooting and hollering in excitement after being let out of their transport boxes. The chimpanzees are reunited with the others in their 19-member family. The Save the Chimps staff spent years creating family units for these highly social animals as part of their rehabilitation. 
Sarah looks out the window at a much greener view than the one she had in New Mexico. She and her family members will have access to a three-acre island. The 150-acre sanctuary has constructed the islands in lieu of fences because chimpanzees will not go into the water. 
Moesha is the first chimp to make it onto one of the islands. After a lifetime spent indoors, these chimpanzees can finally look up and see the sun. Feuerstein expresses her relief that the foundation’s 10-year rescue operation has come to a successful end. “It’s amazing what we’ve accomplished,” she says. “Nobody’s moved this many chimps over this many years and without incident.” 
The “African Queen” is a 100-year-old steam boat famed for its role in the 1951 movie of the same name. 
The movie starred legends of the silver screen, Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, and brought Bogart his only Oscar. 
The boat fell into a state of disrepair after the death of its previous owner in 2001. 
The ship has been repaired and refitted by husband and wife team Lance and Suzanne Holmquist (pictured). 
The restoration process has seen a new steel hull and boiler installed on the African Queen. 
Humphrey Bogart’s son, Stephen, has given the restored vessel his blessing. 
Arnold Palmer, right, celebrates with Augusta National president Billy Payne after launching the 2012 Masters with a ceremonial tee shot 50 years after his “Annus Mirabilis.” Palmer was joined by fellow golf legends Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player in making the honorary drives down the fairway. 
Palmer was the most recognizable sportsman of his generation and he would be followed by legions of fans who were known as “Arnie’s Army.” His greatest year was 1962, when he won the Masters and the British Open, as well as topping both the PGA Tour money and scoring lists. 
Nobody has won more major tournaments than Nicklaus, with Tiger Woods the only player threatening to match the Golden Bear’s record of 18 major titles. His greatest year was 1972, when he won both the Masters and U.S. Opens, before narrowly losing to Lee Trevino in the British Open. 
Golf has been defined by several key players in the past 100 years or so, starting with Harry Vardon — often referred to as “Mr. Golf.” In 1900 the sport’s first genuine legend added the U.S. Open title to the three British Opens he had already won. His total of six British Opens is a record that stands to this day. 
Only Nicklaus and Woods have won more majors than Walter Hagen. His tally of 11 includes two in 1924, and the New Yorker is widely acknowledged as being the first player to earn $1 million. He was also a key figure as professional golfers became accepted in the amateur era. 
Bobby Jones was a remarkable character. A lawyer by trade, he was the leading amateur of his generation and would regularly beat the top professionals. In 1930 he won both the British Open and U.S. Open, as well as their amateur equivalents, for a grand slam that was never repeated. He retired aged just 28, but later founded Augusta National. 
Byron Nelson’s golden era was during World War II but in its final year the Texan went on a winning run that has never been repeated. In 1945, he won 18 out of 35 tournaments, including an incredible 11 in a row. Only Woods can better Nelson’s record of 113 consecutive cuts made. 
Nobody has won all four majors in the same year, but Ben Hogan went close. In 1953, Hogan won the Masters, British Open and U.S. Open but could not compete in the U.S.PGA, which was a matchplay event at the time, because it clashed with the UK major. In 1949, he had nearly died in a car accident. 
Nobody plays modern links golf like Tom Watson. Five-times a British Open champion, Watson nearly joined Vardon on six wins in 2009 when, at the age of 59, he missed out in a heartbreaking playoff. In 1982 he was at his height, winning both the British and U.S. Opens. 
Nick Faldo won five majors in five years between 1987 and 1992, as well as finishing second in two others. His greatest year was 1990, with victories in both the Masters and British Open — the latter by a dominant six strokes — as well as being named player of the year on both the European and PGA Tours. 
To many, Woods is the greatest player the world has seen. He had already won two of his 14 majors prior to 2000 but the new millennium saw him play golf from another planet. Aged 25, the American won three of the four majors and then the 2001 Masters to become the first man to hold all four titles at once. 
Lebanese photographer Roger Moukarzel swapped his warm studio in Beirut for the frozen mountains of Lulea in northern Sweden. He was here to create a series of striking images that would highlight the cause and effect of climate change. 
Lulea is part of the area commonly known as Lapland, a reindeer heartland and home, of course, to Santa Clause’s legendary workshop. 
The reindeer share the region with the Sami, Europe’s northernmost officially indigenous people, whose ancestral lands spread across Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. 
Lulea’s subarctic climate, with mild summers and long, cold and snowy winters, make it an ideal habitat for reindeer. However, in recent years, locals have said that temperatures have been rising appreciably and, in 2010, a herd of more than 300 reindeer was reportedly lost when the ice cover of a frozen lake broke beneath their hoofs. 
Moukarzel takes a picture of a local Sami girl, against the dark, ethereal backdrop of the Lulea forest. 
Dressed in their rich and colourful traditional clothing, Moukarzel positioned his subjects against the intentionally incongruous image of a large, smoke-chugging factory. 
According to Moukarzel, this series of images will be the beginning of many. The 45-year-old photographer plans to travel across all five continents, exploring this theme among different climates and cultures. 
It will certainly not his first big adventure. At just 15, Moukarzel started his career with moving, sometimes haunting pictures of the Lebanese civil war. 
He says he has always been primarily interested in taking pictures of people and “capturing moments of humanity” — such as this striking exchange from 1978 between a Lebanese soldier and a woman in war-torn Beirut. 
After 15 years as a front-line photojournalist for news agencies Sygma and Reuters, Moukarzel hung up his hard hat in favor of high fashion, as he embarked on a new career in the world of fashion photography. 
Trelise Cooper, pictured here at her home in Auckland, is an internationally acclaimed fashion designer. Having established herself with a range of popular boutique stores in the 1980s, the New Zealander went on to design clothes for the likes of Liv Tyler, Julia Roberts and even the cast of U.S. sitcom Sex and the City. 
The view from Cooper’s beach-side home along the Auckland coast. Of her home country, Cooper says it’s a source of great creativity and freshness. “Being the first people to see the sun rise each morning, gives us a sort of freshness, an edginess,” she said. 
The dusty heat of New Delhi proved a sharp contrast to the breezy Auckland air. For Cooper, the city’s “Red Fort” (pictured) epitomizes the flamboyant yet earthy Indian style. 
During her journey, Cooper strolled the streets of New Delhi, taking inspiration from the exotic, bright colors and the traditional stitch-work of the local garments. 
Cooper described the crowded shopping district as “exciting and chaotic and noisy and dusty and smoky and hot.” This, however, was small price to pay for the astonishing array of fabrics and accessories pouring from every street-side stall and shop. 
The New Zealander was thrilled to find this particular outlet, calling it “a treasure trove of fabrics and other goodies,” including textiles, ribbons, bows, buttons and beads. She took samples back with her to her fashion studio in Auckland. 
After months of preparation, Cooper’s “Fusion Journey” creations were ready for public view. This dress, with its gem-like embellishments, was hand-beaded in Delhi. 
Most of all, Cooper returned to New Zealand inspired by the expert craftsmanship she encountered. This dress, with its ruffles and appliqué, was created using the delicate hand-stitching techniques still practiced across India. 
Real Madrid captain Iker Casillas lifts the Spanish Primera Division trophy after Jose Mourinho’s team defeated Mallorca 4-1 on Sunday. The 32-time Spanish champions finished the season with 100 points, a record amount. 
Villarreal midfielder Marcos Senna cut a forlorn figure after a 1-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid condemned the 2006 European Champions League semifinalists to relegation from the Spanish top flight. 
Manchester City beat archrivals and neighbors Manchester United to the English Premier League title on goal difference, after two goals in stoppage gave Roberto Mancini’s side a 3-2 victory against Queens Park Rangers. 
Defeat in Manchester would have sent QPR down, if Bolton Wanderers had beaten Stoke City. But Owen Coyle’s team could only draw 2-2 at the Britannia Stadium, a result which ended Bolton’s 11-year stay in the Premier League. 
Veteran striker Alessandro del Piero celebrated his final game for Juventus in style, scoring as the Italian champions beat Atalanta 3-1. Juventus were undefeated throughout the 38-game league season. 
Filippo Inzaghi marked his final game for AC Milan in similar style to Del Piero, netting the winner in a 2-1 defeat of Novara. Milan finished second, four points behind Juve. 
Borussia Dortmund were crowned champions of Germany for a second year in a row, with Jurgen Klopp’s side finishing eight points ahead of Champions League finalists Bayern Munich. 
Executive participants strain to stay afloat as they attempt to cross a lake in a vessel they have built on an Adventure Associates retreat in North Carolina, USA. 
The boat goes down. 
An executive participant strains before breaking an arrow pressed against her throat on a Be Legendary retreat in the desert in Nevada, USA. 
A “quinzhee” snow shelter prepared by a corporate participant on a “Deep Snow Survival” retreat in the San Juan range in the Rocky Mountains. 
Corporate participants are briefed ahead of taking to the skies for a dogfight. 
A participant prepares for take off next to their instructor at Air Combat USA. 
The view from the cockpit of a SIAI-Marchetti fighter plane ahead of an “executive dogfight.” 
Tennis’ ultimate poster couple are still going strong after 10 years of marriage since reportedly getting together at the champions’ ball after both won the French Open in 1999. They have two children and still play the odd charity match, but rarely battle each other. As their website reveals: “Andre says his problem playing Steffi is not watching the ball.” 
Roger Federer met Mirka Vavrinec at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when they both represented Switzerland. Mirka says her husband’s glittering career has eased her pain after injury forced her retirement in 2002. Of his wife, Roger told the Telegraph newspaper: “I developed faster, grew faster with her. I owe her a lot.” 
She is the former world No. 1 waiting to land her first major title — he’s the baby-faced golfer whose capitulation at the 2011 Masters, and subsequent victory at the U.S. Open, entranced the sport. Together since September last year, Denmark’s Wozniacki and McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, go by the moniker of “Wozilroy” and say they lean on each other’s experiences to help their sporting performance. 
World No. 8 Adam Scott’s appearance at last month’s Australian Open confirmed that another powerful golf and tennis combo are back on the scene. They split in 2010, but 2008 French Open champion Ivanovic told Australian newspaper the Herald Sun: “Sometimes you need time apart to figure things out.” 
Hewitt and Clijsters, both former world No. 1s, met at the Australian Open in 2000, reportedly after Kim’s sister Elkie asked her to get Lleyton’s autograph. They announced their engagement in 2003 but split in October 2004. Both decried the “malicious gossip” that followed their separation. 
The courtship of former world No. 8 Kournikova and pop star Iglesias was the very definition of a high-profile romance when they started dating in 2001. The Russian appeared in the video for Iglesias’ song “Escape,” causing a media frenzy. They are still together, 10 years on. 
Former women’s No. 1 Hingis became engaged to Stepanek in 2006 but a year later the couple announced through the ATP Tour they had split. Hingis, who won five grand slam titles, retired in 2007 after testing positive for cocaine during Wimbledon. Stepanek married fellow Czech Nicole Vaidisova in July 2010. 
A third entry to the list for Evert, whose romance and susbsequent marriage to Australian golfer Greg Norman — known as the “The Great White Shark” — captured headlines in 1998. Evert even caddied for the two-time British Open winner at the Masters during a par-three tournament. The couple split 15 months after their wedding. 
Before Agassi teamed up with Graf, he married actress Brooke Shields in 1997 after a four-year courtship. Agassi, winner of three grand slam titles by then, and Shields, star of TV sitcom “Suddenly Susan,” were a box office hit but split after less than two years of marriage in 1999. 
