Bongani Mkhonza

Bongani Mkhonza is an Author, Researcher, Curator and Academic in Art, Philosophy and Art History. Mkhonza presently works as a Senior Lecturer in Art History, and he is a former Curator for the University of South Africa (UNISA) Art Gallery and Collection (2009 – 2022). His research interests are museums, university art collections, cultural policy, repatriation of artefacts, Afrocentricity and decolonial studies. During this tenure in Museums and Universities, he has sharpened his skills in working in collaboration with diverse teams of academics and collectives such as the Unisa Decolonial Collective and other international partnerships. He has also curated more than twenty art exhibitions nationally and some internationally. He has a PhD in Philosophy and Art History. His PhD research is theoretically grounded in African art/postcolonial/decolonial studies. He is enthusiastic about working with students and has more than thirteen years of experience working in an Open Distance Learning university. He is a member of the South African Visual Arts Historians (SAVAH), the Academic and Non-Fiction Authors Association of South Africa (ANFASA) and the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA). Furthermore, some of his recent publications include Relocating the Centre: Decolonising University Art Collections in South Africa. Published by ONCURATING: Decolonial Propositions, Issue 49 /April 2021 Notes on Curating And Towards Epistemic Repatriation: Re/remembering as the Moral Responsibility of Museums. Published by South African Museums Association Bulletin (SAMAB) Issue 43 (2022). This year 2023, he published a chapter titled: Envisioning the precarious Legacy of black imagination: The art curriculum and Underrepresentation of Black South African Artists, in an academic Book called, Azibuye Emasisweni: Reclaiming our space and centring our knowledge Published by Oasis Scholarly Books. And a chapter in another scholarly book called: Critically diverse perspectives on Covid-19: Interviews with a varied range of South Africans, Published by the Unisa Press, 2023.