Page 28 - Science in Africa

rofessor Sabelo Ndlovu- Professor Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni
Gatsheni is currently director
for scholarship in the change-
management unit in the vice-
chancellor’s office at the
PUniversity of South Africa
(Unisa), a unit dedicated to catalysing and
promoting decolonisation of the very idea of
the university, its culture, epistemology,
research orientation, curriculum, language of
instruction and pedagogy.
He is also the founding head of the Archie
Mafeje Research Institute for Applied Social
Policy based at Unisa, an institution that
promotes research into social policy, African
thought, African indigenous knowledge
systems and articulation of Africa-centred
epistemologies and pedagogies.
Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni is the founder
and coordinator of the Africa Decolonial
Research Network, based at Unisa, a network
dedicated to promotion of decolonial thought
and decolonial scholarship.
He currently also teaches African Political
Economy at the Thabo Mbeki African
Leadership Institute.
His professorship is in the field of
development studies.
Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni is a fellow of the
South African Academy of Science; a fellow of
the African Studies Centre in Leiden in the
Netherlands; a research associate at the South
African Institute of International Affairs in
Johannesburg in South Africa; a research
associate at the Ferguson Centre for African
and Asian Studies at the Open University in
the UK; member of the South Programme of
the Latin American Social Science Council in
collaboration with the ALICE CES Project of
the University of Coimbra in Portugal; and
teaching faculty member of the Centre of
Study and Investigation of Decolonial
Dialogues: Decolonising Knowledge and
Power: Postcolonial Studies, Decolonial
Horizons Annual International Summer
School in Barcelona in Spain.
Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni is a sought-after
scholar who has been invited by such
Australia to deliver keynote addresses. Transformer
institutions as the Institute of Developing
Economies in Japan and the African Studies
Association of Australasia and the Pacific in

In 2015, Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni was the
Falola International Conference on Africa and OF CULTURE
first recipient of the prestigious Ali Mazrui
Award for Scholarship and Research
Excellence at the high-profile annual Toyin
the Diaspora held at Unisa.
In October 2016, Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni
was listed by the influential French through advancement of decolonial research work is in the field of decolonial
newspaper Le Monde among the 10 greatest scholarship. theory and decolonial praxis as it relates to
and prolific African thinkers pushing for Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s publications the urgent task of transformation and
decolonial emancipation of Africa. exceeds 100 research outputs and they consist emancipation of Africa from coloniality and
In November 2016, the Restitution of 12 books (six sole-authored and six edited); colonialism on the one hand, and on the other
Foundation in its inaugural International 56 peer-reviewed journal articles and 56 book hand, his groundbreaking research is on the
Restitution Conference held in Cape Town in chapters. and theme of African political thought, African
South Africa awarded Professor Ndlovu- He has presented over 100 academic papers national projects/African national question,
Gatsheni the Restitution Award in recognition in conferences, seminars and workshops which speaks to the topical issues of nation-
of his intellectual contribution to the throughout the world. building, economic development,
emancipation of Africa and restitution Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s outstanding socioeconomic justice, and social cohesion.
28 SCIENCE IN AFRICA