Research Team

Antony Kaminju is a Documentary photographer, Multimedia Producer and educator. His work gives evidence that he is a keen observer of every day life and intrigued by moments of performance, identity, archival research, urban spaces and pop culture. Over the years he has been facilitator of documentary photography studies at the Market Photo Workshop. He has also served as Phojournalism lecturer at University of Witwatersrand – Journalism department as well as a visiting lecturer at University of Johannesburg Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture.

His articles and images have been published and reviewed by local and International media and exhibited widely, twice at the Bamako Biennale, Mali. His work is also part of art collection by the Agence française de développement (AFD) in France and the Wedge Gallery in Toronto, Canada. He is interested on researching further on Kenyan Colonial archives in the context of photographic images and films.

Daniel Lee is an Oppenheimer Memorial Trust and AHRC-funded PhD candidate at the University of Birmingham, studying the decline of queer nightlife in South Africa in the post-apartheid era, alongside the history of a rich and racially diverse queer nightlife scene during the apartheid era. Their work spans the rich traditions of Southern African social history and ethnomusicology, while for the first time writing queer social and musical practice into these traditions. Dan’s work has recently won the British Forum for Ethnomusicology’s Student Prize (University of Cambridge) and has been featured at the Dancecult 2025 Conference (Technische Universität Berlin). Before commencing their PhD, Dan worked as a research consultant for the GALA Queer Archives, while holding two consecutive research fellowships from the Wits History Workshop. Their work for the SHAP Project focuses on Queer Nightlife and Social Networking in post-1976 Soweto and its mobilities into Hillbrow’s white queer scene in the dying years of urban apartheid.

Ishmael Sehlwane is an MA candidate in History (Dissertation) in the History Workshop at the University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a BEd in Senior and Further Education and Training (FET) Phase, as well as a BA Honours in History which focused on The History of COSAS in Soweto 1979-1985, both from Wits. His research interests include student politics and South African political history. Throughout his studies he has been involved in student activism and worked as a tutor.

Kana Kondo is a PhD candidate in Social Sciences at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. Her research focuses on the commemoration of the 1976 Soweto uprisings, particularly the transmission of memory to the next generation through local museums and schools in present-day Soweto, and even the storytelling of local history by the next generation itself. She had been a visiting scholar at the History Workshop and conducted fieldwork in Soweto from June 2021 to May 2023. She is now writing her dissertation in Japan. Kana has published as part of the SHAP! Project with an article entitled: “A Place of Remembrance in South Africa’s Post-Memory Boom: Depicting the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum from Everyday Life in Soweto”.

Kasonde Thomas Mukonde is a Doctoral Candidate in History with the History Workshop and Department of History at Wits University. He has previously worked as a teacher and a librarian, and published work on the history of reading in Soweto high schools in an international peer–reviewed journal. Kasonde has conducted research on the support that Zambian broadcasters gave to the ANC’s Radio Freedom in Lusaka. His doctoral research focuses on township–based resistance theatre in South African townships from the 1970s to the year 2000. Kasonde obtained his undergraduate degree in history from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Laurence Stewart is a PhD candidate in the History Workshop. Having completed his masters on the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union in the North West in 2021, he is now in the early stages of pursuing a PhD on the environmental history of Soweto. Other interests include football, art and music.

I am Development Specialist at Wits University’s Development and Fundraising Office with 15 years’ experience as a fundraiser in the higher education sector. In this role I contribute to resource mobilisation to empower diverse partnerships that invest ideas, skills, time, and funds in the education sector broadly.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Arts degree and have just completed my Masters in Cultural Policy and Management both from Wits. My MA research report uses narrative inquiry to capture different ways that culture is valued and evaluated. With Funda Centre as my case study, I analyse what these cultural values could mean in the current cultural policy landscape of South Africa with a particular focus on Community Art Centres. The study puts a spotlight on Funda Centre, whose history from 1984 to 2022 has not been comprehensively recorded to bring forth the cultural significance associated with the institution throughout its lifetime.

My research interests are shaped by the interaction between culture, public policy, and education.

I’m currently enrolled in the Global Education Policy course offered by the Open Society University Network to advance my scholarship on the relationship between education and cultural policy.

Recently, I have contributed my academic voice in the bi-annual Wits Science Communication Magazine – Curiosity (Edition 17 theme: Democracy) – where I am a featured researcher relating to discourse on Art and Democracy. The publication is out now in May 2024.

As a writing fellow in the Department of Cultural Policy and Management at Wits University’s School of the Arts (WSOA), I have co-authored a chapter^[1] published in 2024 by Stellenbosch University Press called: Authentic assessment in disrupted postgraduate, writing-intensive courses: reflections from the field, in the book titled, Pedagogic Innovation Beyond Disruption. The book launch is planned for July 2024.

^[1] Joffe, A. Ngwatle L. Ngwenya, S. (2024) Authentic assessment in disrupted postgraduate, writing-intensive courses: reflections from the field. Pedagogic Innovation Beyond Disruption. Dison, L. Prozesky, M. Ferreira, A. Essien A. Giorza, T. (Ed.) Sun Press. Stellenbosch.

Lungile Butu, formerly writing as Lungile Madywabe, has over 20 years of experience as a journalist in South Africa. His current project focusses on early entrepreneurship in Pimville.

Mike Davy matriculated at Coronationville High School 1972. He was already involved in the Black Consciousness movement then. He got a Teachers Diploma at Hewat TC in Cape Town in 1975, and after that a BA at Unisa and then BA Hons at UJ. He was already teaching at the time. He taught for 20 years. His political involvement was mainly with AZAPO and he was thereafter a dual PAC member. From 1996 – 2020 he was a high school principal. In 2020 he retired and completed his MA at Wits in 2024.

Nhlanhla Manana is a talented and passionate jazz bassist hailing from the vibrant township of Soweto. At the age of 28, he has already made significant strides in his musical career and his slowly become one of the most promising jazz musicians in South Africa.

Nhlanhla’s journey in music began during his undergraduate studies in jazz performance at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). It was there that he honed his skills as a bassist and developed a deep appreciation for the art of jazz. Following his undergraduate studies, Nhlanhla continued his education at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where he pursued an honors degree in community music.

Driven by his desire to explore the rich cultural heritage of South Africa, Nhlanhla is currently undertaking a master’s degree in heritage studies at Wits. Through his studies, he aims to delve deeper into the history and significance of music within the nation’s cultural fabric.

Beyond his academic pursuits, Nhlanhla is also actively involved in community work. He serves as the director of an organisation called A Generation, which focuses on mentorship and utilises arts and culture activities such as music, dance, and visual arts to teach life skills to young people. Through this initiative, Nhlanhla is dedicated to empowering the youth and nurturing their artistic talents.

With his exceptional musical abilities, academic pursuits, and commitment to community development, Nhlanhla Manana is an inspiring individual who continues to make a positive impact in the world of jazz and beyond.

Nieftagodien holds the Chair in Local Histories, Present Realities at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), where he is also the director of the History Workshop. His interests centre on aspects of popular insurgent struggles, public history, youth politics, and local history. He is currently investigating the history of the Congress of South African Students, the leading student organisation in the struggle against apartheid and heads the public history initiative, the Soweto History and Archives Project. Among his publications are: The Soweto Uprising; Alexandra – A History & Ekurhuleni – The Making of an Urban Region (co-authored with Phil Bonner); One Hundred Years of the ANC & Struggles in Southern Africa: New Perspectives on the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, 1919-1949 (co-editor).

Shadrack Bokaba is a post-doctoral fellow in the Wits School of Arts, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), a producer of musical theatre and music concerts, and an award-winning arts administrator and violinist.

Bokaba is the recipient of the 2024 post-doctoral fellowship grant, awarded by the prestigious Carnegie Corporation of New York. He holds a PhD in Cultural Policy and Management from Wits and holds both the Master of Business Administration and the Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Henley Business School and has obtained both the Associate and Licentiate Diplomas in Recital in Violin, from Trinity College, London.

Bokaba has been acknowledged as one of South Africa’s leading arts administrators, having been awarded the coveted Arts and Culture Administrator of the Year prize, by the Arts and Culture Trust in 2004. As an administrator, he has served as the Acting CEO of South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation, as Managing Director of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and as the Chief Executive and Trustee for the South African Music Education Trust.

As a theatre producer, he is best known for Divas of Kofifi (2015), and Third World Express (2022) musicals, and has worked as a violinist for several leading South African professional orchestras.

Tokoloho Lephoto holds an MA in History (by dissertation) at the University of the Free State where she also obtained both her undergraduate and Honours degree in History. Her MA research focuses on how Literary Art and Performance Art (theatre) depicted black urban life in apartheid Johannesburg from 1948 to the year 1994. Throughout her studies, she has worked as a tutor, lab assistant, librarian and a facilitator.