People

Dr. Nandera Ernest Mhando

All People

  • Role in Center:

    Advanced Researcher

  • Discipline:

    Anthropology, Sociology

  • University:

    University of Dar es Salaam

  • Country:

    Tanzania

Biography: Dr. Nandera Ernest Mhando is the Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the College of Humanities, University of Dar es Salaam. She is also a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the College of Social Sciences. She has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London, an MA in Sociology and a BA with honours from the University of Dar es Salaam. Her work explores decoloniality, development, and cultural transformation describing gender, social inclusion, religion, and livelihood. Dr. Mhando’s most recent works are on: working mothers, urban vendors, disability and inclusion, charity works across the border of Kenya and Tanzania, Pentecostal-charismatic churches in Tanzania and Kenya, female and traditional male circumcision, critical gender and indigenous practice/agricultural transformation.

Selected Publications:

  • Mhando N. E. (2020): Deployment of Spiritual Services and Legitimation of A Pentecostal-Charismatic Female Church Leader in Tanzania. Alternation Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa, Special Edition 30, 182-198.

  • Ndaluka, T./Mhando N. E./et al. (2020): Preventive Measures against COVID-19 in the Context of Scarcity and Collective Culture in Tanzania, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Dar es Salaam.

  • Mramba N, R./Mhando, N. E. (2020): Moving Towards Decent Work for Street Vendors in Tanzania. UTAFITI Journal of African Perspectives, (15) 257-278.

  • Mhando N.E./Kayuni R. (2019): Challenges and Coping Strategies of Employed Mothers in a Social Security Scheme in Tanzania. Tanzania Journal of Development Studies.

  • Mramba, N.R./Mhando N. E. (2019): Understanding Urban Street Vendors in Nyamagana and Ilemela Municipalities, Mwanza, Tanzania. 

  • Mhando, N. E. (2018): The Continuing Paradox of Female and Traditional Male Circumcision among Kuria in North-Eastern Tanzania. Anthropologica, journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA), 60 (1) 296-309.

  • Mhando, N.E./et al (2018): Modes of Legitimation by Female Pentecostal-Charismatic Preachers in East Africa: A Comparative Study in Kenya and Tanzania. Journal of Contemporary African Studies,  https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2018.1504162.

  • Mhando, N. E./Mramba N. R. (forthcoming): Improving Young Women’s Working Conditions in Tanzania’s Urban Food Vending Sector, a publication supported by United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) with UONGOZI Institute (UI). Accepted – Under review.

  • Nelsons V./Haggar J./Mhando N.E./et al. (2014): Fairtrade Coffee: A Study to Assess the Impact of Fairtrade for Coffee Smallholder and Producer Organisations in Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, and Tanzania. University of Greenwich, Natural Resource Institute.

  • Mhando, N. E./Senga, M. (2013): ‘Women’s Collective Action Qualitative Research Phase III: Synthetic Report–Tanzania’, exploring value chain of mixed and only women groups in horticulture farming Dar es Salaam. Oxfam GB.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Ethnography
  • Urban Sociology
  • Disability and Inclusion
  • Informal Sector
  • Anthropology of Religion

Current Position(s):

  • Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
  • Senior Lecturer in Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Past Position(s)

  • Visiting Lecturer at the Institute of Global Ethnology and Anthropology, Minzu University of China
  • Visiting Lecturer: Decoloniality Summer School: Power, Knowledge and Being, College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.
  • Acting Director of Advancement and Alumni Services, University of Dar es Salaam
  • Advancement Manager at University of Dar es Salaam
  • Convocation Liaison Officer at University of Dar es Salaam
  • Program Assistant, Associate Colleges of Midwest United State of America
  • Part Time Radio Presenter, Sky FM (101.4FM), IPP Media Group

Prizes & Awards:

  • Academic Lead for Tanzania: The Disability and Inclusion Network – 2020 to 2023
  • African Humanities Program Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies – 2018 to 2019
  • Commonwealth Scholar (Fellowship) – 2007 to 2011
  • The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI)/Sutasoma Award – 2011
  • SIDA/SAREC Scholarship – 2002-2004
  • Project Director: A Research Grant for project “Modes of Legitimation by Female Pentecostal-Charismatic Preachers in East Africa: A Comparative study in Kenya and Tanzania”, ID 2016-SS270 John Templeton Foundation/Nagel Institute for Study of World Christianity, 2016 to 2017

Memberships & Networks:

  • Centre for Philosophy in Africa, Nelson Mandela University – since 2020
  • University of Dar es Salaam Academic Staff Assembly – since 2005 up to now
  • University of Dar es Salaam Convocation – since 2001 
  • Amnesty International, Tanzania Chapter – 1992 to 1999
  • Tanzania Lead: Global Centre of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (GCSMUS), in collaboration with TU Berlin 5
  • Academic Lead for Tanzania: The Disability and Inclusion Network Project working across disciplines, the project Arts and Humanities research to enhance disability inclusion in engage international development, supported by Arts and Humanities Research Council