Jesmael Mataga

I am a Zimbabwean, who has been living and teaching in Lesotho for the last seven years. I grew up in Masvingo, south of Zimbabwe, before embarking on studies in history and heritage management. After my first degree, feeling somehow ‘intellectually unchallenged’ by high school teaching, I ventured (by sheer luck) into the museum/heritage world where I spent five years as Curator at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences. It was this exposure to a colonially formed, state-funded organisation that inspired my PhD in which I explore the politics of heritage practices in colonial and postcolonial Zimbabwe. In addition to my teaching duties, my PhD (in African Studies) has dominated a good part of my academic life since 2009 when I joined Archive & Public Culture as a fellow. APC research activities, connections and networks have been instrumental in shaping my ideas and work. I have always been told that a PhD thesis is a long and lonely journey that can be completed by no one else other than one’s self. Nevertheless, with good colleagues and a helpful group, one can get through it and even enjoy it! In this sense, the Centre for African Studies and the Archive & Public Culture group have been a great place to be.