I come to what I do by way of African Studies and History.

I teach classes about South Africa, African cities, where ethnic groups come from, Christianity, prophetic and political movements in Africa and the Atlantic World, pictures, cinema, and colonialism, and mid-20th century revolutionary movements & the Cold War in Africa.

I am a fellow at the History Centre at the University of Johannesburg.

At present, I'm researching the world anti-apartheid movement.

BOOKS:

• Spear: Mandela and the Revolutionaries (Ohio University Press, 2022). Winner, American Historical Association, Martin Klein Prize for Best English Language Work in African History, 2023.
• Popular Politics in the History of South Africa, ca. 1400 to 1948 (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010). Finalist, African Studies Association best book (Herskovits) Prize.
• The Realm of the Word: Language, Gender and Christianity in a Southern African Kingdom (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995). Finalist, African Studies Association Best Book (Herskovits) Prize

In 2020 and 2021, I spent a semester in two visits at the University of Leipzig multi-year project as a senior fellow, the “Multiple Secularities, Multiple Modernities” KFG program.