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Current Awareness 2023: May

Keeping you up to date with news and events in South Africa

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What is current awareness

Current awareness is the term used to describe staying informed by keeping up to date with the latest publications, research and news in your field.

The perspective of current awareness is the present and the forthcoming, as opposed to the retrospective. 

Current awareness ranges from looking for information on specific topics on a regular basis (and this usually involves the assistance of your Personal Librarian to help you set up a search profile matched to your research interests) to embracing a wider, more general, and cross-disciplinary view that brings an element of serendipity into your search for the latest information.

Informally, researchers remain alert in all contexts for useful information and insights that will inform their daily practice, their research, and spark off innovative and creative ideas for new avenues of research.

Website of the month

South African Historical Society 

The Society was founded in Bloemfontein on 5 February 1965 on the initiative of the history department at the University of the Orange Free State and led by Professor J.J. Oberholster (best known for his work as Director of the National Monuments Council and his research into the history of the Free State) and 'Tienie' van Schoor (well known for his work on the South African War). The specific intention of the new society was to promote the interests of professional historians through 'encouraging and effecting professional communication and unity' among them. This was to be accomplished by arranging regular conferences at which papers would be read and by publishing a high-quality journal in which to disseminate 'papers and other material in connection with South African historiography and scientific studies of history'. Active historians at universities were the target membership but others working outside the academy, in archives for instance, were welcomed.

Read more…

About the monthly awareness page

The year is marked with many special days, weeks, and months dedicated and devoted to raising awareness about important issues.

This monthly post, compiled by the Information Search Librarians Team, will note special dates and themes, and draw your attention to possibly interesting cross-disciplinary topical references intended to inform and to inspire ideas for research.

Selected noteworthy days in May

1 May 2023

Workers’ Day 2023

Workers’ Day has been officially recognised and observed since the first democratic elections in 1994. The holiday serves both as a celebration of workers’ rights and as a reminder of the critical role that trade unions, the Communist Party and other labour organisations played in the fight against Apartheid

Read more about the history of Worker's Day in South Africa on the SA History Online's website.

15 May 2023

International Day of Families 2023

International Day of Families falls on 15 May every year and highlights the importance of families as basic units of society.

21 May 2023

World day for cultural diversity for dialogue and development 2023

In 2001, UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity(link is external) and in December 2002, the UN General Assembly, in its resolution 57/249, declared May 21 to be the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

Africa Month

The month of May is recognised as Africa month – a time when the continent of Africa commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)

Energy Month

May is National Energy Month in South Africa. 

In the media

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Archive

Should you wish to read Current Awareness guides of previous years, please visit the archive:

2014-2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Looking for upcoming conferences?

If you are looking for forthcoming conferences, the following websites are helpful:

Golden oldies

Current trends in African culture

Source: Marang : Journal of Language and Literature Vol. 2, No. 1, pp 64-6801 January 1978

By B.L. Leshoai

The current trends in African culture are reflected in the whole day to day life of the Africans all over the continent. This way of national growth, this way of national development is expressed at all times through the spoken word, the written word, radio, television, song, dance, art, education, commerce, industry and religion. 

African history and teaching of history in Dar es Salaam

Africa history and teaching of history in Dar es Salaam

Published Online:1 Apr 1993

By E. Wamba-dia-Wamba

Abstract: The program of history writing and teaching Lumumba assigned to Africa - despite its somewhat vague terminology - has not yet been comoletely fulfilled. Africans have been writing and teaching history; more often than not it has been a history of celebration of ""fathers of the nations"", their ""nation-building"" process or a history accusing/absolving them from the responsibility of aggravating African people's miseries.