Associate member profile: Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni

Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni was employed as Lecturer in African Studies from January 2008 to January 2010.

Prof. Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, now employed by the University of South Africa, Pretoria, has been invited by the African Union Commission to lead a team of curriculum experts in drafting curricula for postgraduate courses at five new Pan African Universities. The African Union is establishing the universities in five regions of Africa. Prof. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is tasked with helping to draft curricula for three courses: History of Africa, Democratization in Africa, and Development and Governance in Africa.

The rest of this profile has not been updated since November 2010.

Dr Ndlovu-Gatsheni is now Associate Professor in the Department of Development Studies, University of South Africa, Pretoria; and Research Associate at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), Johannesburg

Profile

I was educated at the University of Zimbabwe and University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. I have a BA Honours in History, MA in African History, PhD in History and PGDE in Education. Before joining The Open University in January 2008, I taught History at the University of Zimbabwe, History& Development Studies at Midlands State University and International Studies at Monash University (South Africa Campus) where I was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of International Studies.

Research interests

These include Modern African History as a whole from 1500 onwards, Zimbabwean and South African history and contemporary African politics. The focus of my research is on cultural and colonial encounters, colonial and post-colonial forms of governance, pre-colonial African hegemonic ideologies, nationalism and imaginations of nationhood in Africa, memory and identity politics in Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as politics of nativism and cosmopolitanism. I am currently formulating a research project tentatively entitled: ‘Contested Histories and Memories: Commemorations, Memorialisation and Imaginations of Nationhood in Zimbabwe and South Africa.’

Key publications

• Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J., and Muzondidya, J., (eds) (2010) Redemptive or Grotesque Nationalism? Rethinking Contemporary Politics in Zimbabwe, Peter Lang, Oxford. Link to flyer
• Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J., (2010) Do 'Zimbabweans' Exist? Trajectories of Nationalism, National Identity Formation and Crisis in a Postcolonial State, Peter Lang, Oxford. Link to flyer
• ‘Black Republican Tradition, Nativism and Populist Politics in South Africa,’ in Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, Volume 66, (2008-in press).
• ‘Forging and Imagining the Nation in Zimbabwe: Trials and Tribulations of Joshua Nkomo as a Nationalist Leader,’ in Sprawy Narodowosciowe: Nationalities Affairs, Issue 30, (June 2007) pp. 25-42.
• ‘Re-thinking the Colonial Encounter in Zimbabwe in the Early Twentieth Century,’ in Journal of Southern African Studies Volume 33, Number 1, (March 2007), pp. 173-191.
• ‘Fatherhood and Nationhood: Joshua Nkomo and Re-imagination of the Zimbabwe Nation in the 21st Century’ in Kizito Z. Muchemwa and Robert Muponde (eds.), Manning the Nation: Father Figures in Zimbabwean Literature and Society, (Weaver Press and Jacana Press, Harare/Johannesburg, September 2007), pp. 73-87.
• ‘Conflict, Violence and Crisis in Zimbabwe,’ in Khabele Matlosa, Jorgen Elklit and Bertha Chiroro (eds.), Challenges of Conflict, Democracy and Development in Africa, (Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, Johannesburg, 2007), pp. 306-329.
• ‘Bob is Peerless: Zimbabwe and the Quest for an African Peer Review Mechanism’ in Henning Melber (ed.), Governance and State Delivery in Southern Africa: Examples from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, 2007), pp. 43-65.
• ‘Puppets or Patriots? Nationalist Rivalry Over the Spoils of Dying Settler Colonialism in Zimbabwe, 1977-1980’ in W. J. Burszta, T. Kamusella & S. Wojciechowski (eds.), Nationalisms Across the Globe: An Overview of Nationalism in State-Endowed and Stateless Nations: Volume 2, (Poznan, Poland, 2006), pp. 345-396.
• ‘The Nativist Revolution and Development Conundrums in Zimbabwe,’ in African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) Occasional Paper Series. Volume 1, Number 4, (December 2006), pp. 1-40.
• ‘Gods of Development, Demons of Underdevelopment and Western Salvation: Rethinking Development as a Sequel to the CODESRIA and OSSREA International Conferences on African Development,’ (OSSREA Bulletin: A Tri-Annual Publication of the Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), Volume III, No. 2, (2006), pp. 32-48.
• ‘Nationalist-Military Alliance in Zimbabwe and the Fate of Democracy,’ in African Journal on Conflict Resolution, Volume 6, N0. 1, (2006), pp. 49-80.
• ‘Grappling with the Ambiguities of the Colonial Encounter and the Nationalist Paradigm in Zimbabwe,’ in The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS) Bulletin Special Issue: Race in Africa: Past and Present, Number 72, (Winter 2005/Spring 2006), pp. 14-20. Website
• ‘Twilight of Patriarchy in A Southern African Kingdom: A Case Study of Captives and Women in the Ndebele State of Zimbabwe,’ in UNISWA Research Journal, Volume 19, (December 2005), pp. 59-71.
• ‘Can Women’s Voices be recovered from the Past? Grappling with the Absence of Women’s Voices in Pre-Colonial History of Zimbabwe’, in Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, Volume 2, No. 1, (Summer 2005).