The South Africa Initiatives Office
Since 1993, when the U-M's South Africa Initiatives Office (SAIO) was founded under Charles D. Moody, emeritus professor of education, the University has sent 40 to 45 undergraduate and graduate students and a dozen or so faculty and staff to South Africa each academic year.

U-M's formal contact with South Africa began in 1991 when Moody, who was then vice president for minority affairs, led a U-M delegation that bestowed on Nelson Mandela the honorary doctorate the Regents awarded him in absentia in 1990.

Mandela thanked the U-M for weakening apartheid through its participation in the international divestment campaign that brought economic and moral pressure on the White minority regime. Thereafter, in 1994, he won the first democratic presidential election in South Africa and this year stepped down. He was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki.

During that 1991 visit both parties noted parallels in the problems faced by South Africa and the United States as a result of their common histories of racial separation and discrimination. They proposed that U-M pursue extensive two-way linkages with South African academic and governmental institutions.

Since 1993, the SAIO has coordinated ongoing U-M-South African ties in the fields of social research, art and architecture, business, law, social work, public health, engineering, anthropology, music, political science, information technology, natural resources, nursing, education and archiving.

Just before his retirement in 1996, Moody obtained the US Information Agency grant that funded the School of Information's archival project at the University of Fort Hare.

Oscar Barbarin III succeeded Moody at the SAIO's helm. In September, Professor Barbarin returned to teaching and research in psychology and social work, and SAIO moved from within the Office of the Vice President for Research to the Center for Afro-American and African Studies (CAAS).

CAAS Director James S. Jackson, the Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, said that SAIO would retain its identity and mission within the U-M's newly formed Michigan African Studies Initiative.

Student Exchange Fund
The U-M's Charles D. and Christella D. Moody South Africa Initiative Fund Supports student exchanges between the United States and South Africa. Contributions to the fund may be sent to SAIO, U-M Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, 200 West Hall, Ann Arbor, Ml, 48109-1092. Phone (734) 764-5513.