Tanaka Chidora
lectures in the Department of Literary Studies at the University of Malawi and is also a research fellow at the University of the Free State (South Africa). In 2021, he received the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship to research on violence, memory and literature in Zimbabwe. His monograph will be published in 2026. He has a PhD in English from the University of the Free State and has further research interests in popular culture, world literature, transculturality, populism, speculative fiction from Anglophone Africa and Afrodiasporic writing. He is also a creative writer. His first collection of poems, Because Sadness is Beautiful? was published in 2019 and the manuscript of his forthcoming debut novel, Born Location, was longlisted for the Island Prize. Additionally, he is the Co-chief Editor of Matatu: Journal for African Literary and Cultural Studies, and Associate Editor for Kairos: Journal of Critical Symposium and Feminist Encounters.
Yemurai Gwatirisa
is Adjunct Lecturer of German in the Department of Education and Language Skills, Faculty of Health and Education at Botho University in Gaborone (Botswana). She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule-Aachen University (Germany). In 2023, she was awarded the African Peacebuilding Network Individual Research Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council. She is an intercultural trainer and trainer of trainers for Goethe Institute Johannesburg’s Pre-integration—Living and Working in Germany (AMIF) Programme. Her research interests are in memory culture, cross- and intercultural studies, the teaching of German as a foreign language, gender and literary studies. She is a co-author of the textbook for German language learners in Africa, Und jetzt WIR, which is currently being used in many schools in Africa.
Liketso Dube
is a lecturer at Great Zimbabwe University. His research interests are in language policy, indigenous languages promotion, language policy and rights, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Onomastics and IsiNdebele/IsiZulu literature and culture. He holds a PhD in African Languages and Literature, Master of Education Degree in Curriculum and Arts, a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in African Languages and Culture and a Diploma in Education.
graduated with a PhD in English in the Department of English at the University of the Free State (Qwaqwa Campus). He is also a Junior Lecturer of English as a Medium for Learning and Teaching in the Department of Education at the same university. He has publications on the legitimation of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwean literature. His research interests include the political/politicised constitutions of Zimbabwean nationhood, hegemonic discourses and the intersection between African cosmologies and madness/mental illness in African Literature.
Steyn Khesani Madlome
is a full-time senior lecturer at Great Zimbabwe University in the Robert Mugabe School of Heritage and Education, HOD for Languages, Media and Communication Department, and UNISA Research Fellow, Department of African Languages in the College of Human Sciences. He holds a PhD degree in Xitsonga, Masters of Arts in Xitsonga, and BA Honours in Xitsonga from the University of Venda (RSA), Bachelor of Arts degree (Mathematics, Xitsonga and Philosophy) from Great Zimbabwe University and a Diploma in Education from Mutare Teachers College. Madlome is currently a Research fellow at the University of South Africa (UNISA). His areas of research are onomastics, translation and interpreting studies, linguistics, culture, indigenous knowledge systems, sociolinguistics, African languages Technologies and digital humanities. He is comfortable with both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. He does some consultancy work in translation, voice-overs, transcription, editing for NGO s and Governmental institutions and has taken part in language planning matters in Zimbabwe as a member of the National Languages Advisory Committee (NALACO).
Zvinashe Mamvura
was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of African Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany (2019–2022). He is a research fellow in the Department of African Languages at the University of South Africa. His research interests include Onomastics, Memory Studies, Gender Studies, Sociolinguistics, Language Planning and Policy and African Cultural Studies. His recent publications appear in the following journals: Urban Geography, Urban Forum, African Studies, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Geopolitics and GeoJournal. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7856-918X
holds a DPhil in English. His research interests and areas of publication cover diverse areas of (auto)biography, life writing, the interface of literature and history in exploring the Land Question in Zimbabwe, and African, Diasporic and Comparative literature. His interests also extend to the interface between literature and history in reading memory and trauma in Zimbabwean. Sheunesu is currently working on a special ‘Writing Zimbabwe’ project which will culminate in the recording of the lives of important national figures. He currently teaches in the Centre for Communication Studies at Midlands State University (MSU) in Zimbabwe.
Jacob Mapara
is a professor and the Director of the Institute of Lifelong Learning and Development Studies at Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe. Dr. Mapara has research interests in indigenous knowledge, onomastics and decoloniality. He endeavors to celebrate the diversity of human cultures, hence his stand against mono-culturalism, mono-lingualism and mono-epistemology. Mapara is a firm believer in the co-creation of global knowledges. He has written and researched extensively in the areas of indigenous knowledge and living heritage. Mapara is a holder of a Doctor of Literature and Philosophy (DLitt et Phil) Degree in African Languages from UNISA.
Tsiidzai Matsika
is a lecturer in the Languages, Literature and Culture Department at the University of Zimbabwe. She is a research fellow at the University of the Free State in the English Department. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Free State. Her PhD thesis looks at the politics of sustainability as reflected in Zimbabwean political texts. She has worked on policy analysis, language, gender and sustainable development issues. She is passionate about advocacy in policy and gender issues. She teaches modules on literature and gender, governance and development and research methods to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Nomalanga Mpofu-Hamadziripi
is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics with twenty-four (24) years’ experience in university teaching, training, research and administration. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Oslo, Norway, a master of arts degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher and Tertiary Education from the Great Zimbabwe University. She is the Director of the Teaching and Learning Institute and Associate Professor of
Gibson Ncube
lectures at Stellenbosch University. He has held fellowships supported at Oxford University (UK), Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (South Africa), the National Humanities Center (USA) and Leeds University Centre for African Studies (UK). He has published widely in the fields of comparative literature, gender and queer studies as well as cultural studies. He was the 2021 Mary Kingsley Zochonis Distinguished Lecturer (African Studies Association UK). He sits on the Editorial Boards of the following journals: Journal of Literary Studies, the Canadian Journal of African Studies, the Nordic Journal of African Studies, the Journal of African Cultural Studies, the African Journal of Gender and Religion as well as Imbizo: International Journal of African Literary and Comparative Studies. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of African Languages and the French Book Review Editor of the Canadian Journal of African Studies.
Sambulo Ndlovu
is a professor of linguistics at the University of Eswatini and Great Zimbabwe University. He is also a Research Associate at the University of South Africa. He holds a PhD in linguistics from UCT, and his research areas are onomastics, socio- and anthropological linguistics, and cultural studies. His latest books are Naming and Othering in Africa: Imagining supremacy and inferiority through language and Onomastic Performatives: Names and naming from an anthropological linguistic perspective.
Doreen Rumbidzai Tivenga
is a lecturer at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, where she also received her PhD in English Literary and Cultural Studies. Her research interests include urban youth cultures, performances and identities, youth literatures, popular and celebrity culture and the new media. Doreen has presented papers at both local and international conferences, and has published and co-published book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals on the relationship between music, youth identities and the contemporary Zimbabwean experience, the role played by the new media and popular culture in addressing political injustices in contemporary Zimbabwe, literary depictions of South African youth experiences in the post-apartheid era and life narratives in the context of the corona virus pandemic in South Africa.