• Associate Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria

Namhla Thando Matshanda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with an interest in the political history of the Horn of Africa. She holds a PhD in African Studies from the University of Edinburgh, an MA in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand, and a BA Honours degree from the University of the Western Cape. Assoc. Prof Matshanda is a C2 NRF-rated researcher (2025-2030). Her research is concerned with the late colonial period in Africa. Specifically, her work explores the evolution of statehood in modern Ethiopia and it interrogates the tensions between state and nation building in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa.

• 2025–present Associate professor, University of Pretoria
• 2014–2025 Senior lecturer, University of the Western Cape

• 2015 University of Edinburgh , PhD African Studies
• 2010 University of the Witwatersrand , MA International Relations
• 2008 University of the Western Cape , BA Honours

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