Nomzamo Portia Ntombela is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Stellenbosch University. She holds an MA in African history from Michigan State University, Hons in Social Anthropology and a BA from Stellenbosch University. She is also a Lisa Maskell/PANGEA and an AVReQ doctoral fellow. She currently serves on the executive of the South African Sociological Association and is on the editorial board of the South African Review of Sociology. She has presented various talks and guest lectures, both locally and internationally, on contemporary social justice movements in SA, transitional justice and the history of women’s activism in Africa. Nomzamo was also the first black woman student body President at Stellenbosch University in 2017 and continues to be involved in student organizing efforts.

Current Research Project

Ms Ntombela’s research concerns itself with the role of women in exile during the anti-apartheid struggle and focuses on their engagement with ‘liberation’ both as a conceptual and tangible phenomena. It focuses on the contributions of women to debates amongst uMkhonto weSizwe and the Pan African Congress in exile bases on the continent and in the diaspora. It also explores the experiences of women in uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) to gauge the broader ideological exchanges of the MK and PAC in exile as it relates to the positioning of women and feminism. She also wishes to make the argument that women comrades made significant political and intellectual contributions, whilst in exile, that made the Southern African liberation project credible across the diaspora.

Names of Supervisor(s): Prof Bernard Dubbeld and Dr Justin Pearce

Email: 19000855@sun.ac.za | Tel: +27 (21) 808 4047

Recent Publications

Balasco, L., Ciordia, B., Garnsey, E., Karajerjian, S., Kurze, A., Lamont, C. K., Ntombela, N. P & Salehi, M. (2022). Introducing justice craft: Political change across space and time. Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS), 3(1), 51-108.