KNUST wins Pan African Universities Debate Championship again | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
21st December 2020
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has for the 3rd consecutive time won the Pan African Universities Debate Championship (PAUDC).
This makes it the first university to have attained such in the 13 year history of the competition.
Emerging the first West African winner in Tanzania 2018, KNUST won it again for the second time after a successful hosting of the tournament dubbed AKOFENA 2019. A win this year again means a solidified legacy for KNUST in the debate circuit, making her the only other university in Africa to be a three-time winner of Africa’s biggest inter-varsity debate championship.
This year’s edition, originally scheduled to be hosted by the University of Botswana Debate Masters Association in Botswana, was held virtually on a Discord server between 14th and 20th December due to travel restrictions measure to reduce the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, and as a collaboration between the PAUDC council, Makerere Debate Union and Royal Rhetorics.
It was themed “UMOJA NI NGUVU” – the Swahili expression meaning “Unity is strength”.
PAUDC uses the same structure as the British Parliarment where four teams debate either sides of a motion – with two teams in support (making the government bench) and the other two opposing it (opposition bench).
All four independent of one another, and compete to be ranked from 1st to 4th.
The grand finale was a fierce contest between 2 teams each from KNUST and the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa on the motion; “This House Believes that judicial systems should more harshly punish people found guilty of committing gcrimes against members of social groups who experience disproportionately high rates of violence regardless of that offender’s intent (i.e. women, ethnic minorities).”
Of the 100 teams that made it to the tourney, the KNUST Debate Society coasted home the iconic victory through Achiaa Abena Otuo and Kojo Opoku Acheampong.