Dr. Mabutho Shangase and Dr. Gairoonisa Paleker left Japan on February 1, 2019. They came to Japan on October 2019, and had stayed here for four months. It was the second time to visit Japan for Dr. Shangase, but it was his first time to stay for a long time. He had three seminars, gave lectures for undergrad and graduate students at TUFS, and met many Japanese Africanists. Dr. Shangase also visited many places and enjoyed various aspects of Japan in his private time.

Here is his essay about his experience in Japan.

It has been a great honour and a privilege to visit Japan and join the faculty team of African Studies Centre at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS). My four-month research fellowship starting in October 2018 and ending in January 2019 entailed teaching, conducting research and delivering three seminars. All in all, this has been an invaluable experience of scholarship, cultural exchange, and friendship. I will certainly cherish these relationships and experiences for the rest of my academic life and my existence in general.

So what is it like to be parachuted into another cultural universe? The news of my research fellowship came very early in 2018 after I had been informed about my selection to participate in this important partnership by Prof. Maxi Schoeman here in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria. Our head of department Prof. Siphamandla Zondi invited me to his office and asked me about my teaching schedule and whether I would be able to wrap up the second semester in time and be ready to take another semester in Tokyo. I had to think on my feet and condense six months of public policy cours