Membership and Partnerships

Research Team

Professor Charlotte Baker

Principal Investigator

Professor Charlotte Baker is Professor of French and Critical Disability Studies in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University in the UK. Her research explores questions of disability and stigma in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on albinism. She has published widely on the socio-cultural realities of living with albinism, cultural representations of albinism, and the human rights abuses against people with albinism. She set up the Wellcome Trust-funded Albinism in Africa project in 2014 and she is Principal Investigator for the AHRC-funded Disability and Inclusion in Africa project.

Dr Elvis Imafidon

Dr Elvis Imafidon is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Ambrose Alli University, Nigeria, and Fellow of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS). He is particularly interested in African ontology and African ethics and the implications these have on lived experiences in African places such as corruption, gender, disability (with specific reference to albinism), difference and healthcare. He has published several essays and books in these and other areas and recently published African Philosophy and the Otherness of Albinism: White Skin, Black Race(Routledge 2019). Dr Imafidon is Co-Investigator and Academic Lead for Nigeria for the AHRC-funded Disability and Inclusion in Africa project.

Dr Nandera Ernest Mhando

Dr Nandera Ernest Mhando is a Social Anthropologist with a background in Sociology. She is the Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies (College of Humanities) and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (College of Social Sciences) at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology (Goldsmiths, University of London), MA Sociology and BA (Hons) (University of Dar es Salaam). Her works explore decoloniality, development, and cultural transformation relating to gender, disability, religion, child protection, and livelihood. Her most recent works are on: disability and inclusion; urban vendors; critical gender; charity works across the border of Kenya and Tanzania; gender and agricultural transformation. Dr Nandera Ernest Mhando is Academic Lead for Tanzania for the Disability and Inclusion in Africa project.

Dr Emelda Ngufor Samba

Dr Emelda Ngufor Samba is Associate Professor in Theatre and English, and Head of Performing Arts and Cinematography at the University of Yaoundé 1 in Cameroon. She is a theatre practitioner who is actively involved in the People’s Theatre for Social Change and she is Artistic Director of The National Association of Theatre Troupes in Cameroon and the Coordinator of the Fobang Mundi Theatre, a semi-professional troupe that uses theatre to disseminate health messages. She is prominent in the Cameroonian theatrical scene and has been involved in numerous stage and TV productions throughout her career. Dr Emelda Ngufor Samba is Academic Lead for Cameroon for the Disability and Inclusion in Africa project.

Kobus Moolman

Kobus Moolman is Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of English Studies at the University of the Western Cape. He has published seven collections of poetry, two collections of plays, and edited a collection of poetry, prose and art by South African writers living with disabilities. He has won numerous local and international awards for his work, including most recently the 2015 Glenna Luschei Award for African Poetry for his collection A Book of Rooms. He was guest editor of the first special issue of a South African journal dedicated entirely to the teaching of creating writing. His first collection of short fiction, The Swimming Lesson and other stories, was published in 2018. He recently edited a special issue on contemporary South African poetry for the American journal, Illuminations. His recent research is concerned with investigating the relationship between the non-normative body (and alterity) and experimental textual practices that challenge generic boundaries. Dr Jacobus Moolman is Academic Lead for South Africa for the Disability and Inclusion in Africa project.

Project Researchers

KENNETH UYI ABUDU

Kenneth Uyi Abudu is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Ambrose Alli University, Nigeria. He bagged his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy at Ambrose Alli University with a First Class honours, and a Master of Arts Degree in Philosophy at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, with a Distinction. His research explores Philosophy of the Environment, African Philosophy, with interest in Ethics, Epistemology and Disability (albinism). He has published several essays in these areas and other areas of Philosophy. He has undertaken the fieldwork in Nigeria for the Disability and Inclusion Africa project.

JOANNE BLOCH

Dr Joanne Bloch is a Post Doctoral fellow in the Department of English Studies at the University of the Western Cape. Joanne holds a PhD in Fine Art from the University of Cape Town. She was an exhibiting artist for close on 20 years, but after the onset of visual impairment decided to redirect her creative practice towards writing. In parallel with her art practice, Joanne has always had a particular interest in life writing. She has been involved in several interview-based projects, including one with young refugees and one detailing the coming out stories of gay and lesbian South Africans. These projects culminated in the publication of the books ‘I am an African’ and ‘Balancing Act’, aimed at a high school audience. Joanne also developed an audio interviewing project for the Cape Town- based Museum of Childhood, for which six elderly South Africans from a range of different backgrounds recounted their childhood memories. Her current Post doctoral writing project is based on conversations with other visually impaired South Africans, in a bid to allow these largely marginalized voices to be more widely heard. She has undertaken the fieldwork in South Africa for the Disability and Inclusion Africa project.

KIRSTEN DEANE

A Masters in Creative Writing student, Kirsten Deane completed her undergraduate and honours degree in English Literature. Since the age of sixteen Kirsten’s writing has always explored how life is lived in different forms of life. Most recently, her work has explored the experience of living with a disability, drawing on her own disability and others. Her poetry and short stories have been featured in more than ten literary journals nationally and internationally, including a feature in the New Contrast journal.

FELIX MBOG-LEN MAPOUT

Filmmaker Félix Mbog-Len Mapout is a promoter of social action documentaries. His passion begins with the applied theatre of his teacher Dr Emelda Samba. This is how he became interested in social integration and made films with the disabled, which include ‘Main tendue’, on begging; ‘Hémle’, an autobiography; ‘Le mythe de Mapout’, the quest for historical identity of a young disabled person and ‘Scènes de communication’, his meeting with a deaf-mute person. Félix holds a professional master’s degree in cinema, which he obtained in Senegal. He has undertaken the fieldwork in Cameroon for the Disability and Inclusion Africa project.