Ancila Nhamo
Senior Lecturer at University of Zimbabwe
Ancila Nhamo is a senior lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage Management at the University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe. She has 14 years experience in teaching archaeology and heritage management at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has also been a visiting lecturer at the Great Zimbabwe University. At the University of Zimbabwe, Ancila has also worked in various administrative capacities, including as Proctor in the student Disciplinary, Senate representative for Faculty of Arts and Acting Chairperson of the History Department. She is currently a member of the University of Zimbabwe Research Board.
Dr Nhamo research interests lie in rock art interpretation, management, and conservation. Her Ph.D. thesis was on investigating thematic variations in the rock art of Zimbabwe and their implications on understanding cultural differences amongst Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers. In addition, Ancila has been an active member in major research projects investigating the archaeology of eastern Zimbabwe. From 2003, she joined the Ancestral Landscapes of Manyikaland project (2003-2007) which was funded by the Norwegian Programme for Development, Research, and Education (NUFU). This was followed by the Archaeology and Tradition project in eastern Zimbabwe (2007-2011) research project. Currently, she is involved in the Change and Continuity in Forager’s rock art: social dynamics and climate in the Matobo, Zimbabwe (35 000-2 200 BP) together with colleagues Camille Bourdier (University of Toulouse, France), Guillaume Porraz (CNRS Nanterre, University of Paris, France) and the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe. The project is aimed at providing a nuanced understanding of the history and changing processes of the foragers’ populations from Southern Zimbabwe-Limpopo between 35 000 and 2200 BP. The target areas include dating the emergence and characterizing the chrono-stylistic variability of the rock art, establishing diachronic changes in the technical systems from the MSA to the Late LSA in Southern Africa, investigating the phenomena of convergence, transitions and regionalization and elucidating the impact of the climatic and environmental conditions to the socio-cultural dynamics of the populations (technical productions and rock art).
Dr Nhamo is involved in the public dissemination of archaeological and heritage information. She has been involved in a number of initiatives that promotes public appreciation of archaeology, in particular, rock art. She has participated in several exhibitions that were aimed at presenting archaeological data to the public. These include exhibitions at several National Research and Intellectual Expositions (RIE) organized by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Zimbabwe). She has also exhibited at the Sanganai/Hlanganani-World Travel and Tourism Fair, an international tourism fair organized by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. In 2017, she worked with the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe and the Embassy of France to organize an exhibition on Zimbabwean rock art within the pavilion of the National Art Gallery in Harare. She has worked with the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA) on a rock art awareness programme, which was funded by the Prince Claus Fund of Amsterdam. This resulted in an awareness booklet on rock art conservation. Ancila is also working with Seke Katsamudanga on a project of Archaeology and Development focused on evaluating the level of economic benefits that communities and individuals derive from the archaeological sites.
Ancila has worked with various international organizations in a diversity of capacities. She was a resource person for National Workshop on the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in Swaziland, 2017. She has also participated in the Rock Art monitoring at Tsodilo UNESCO World Heritage Site, 2015. Both these were funded by UNESCO and Africa World Heritage Fund. Currently she is working as a resource person on a documentation and conservation project for Matobo UNESCO World Heritage Landscape funded by the World Monuments Fund. The projects is run by National History Museum in Bulawayo, a regional branch of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.
Dr Nhamo has published several books, book chapters, and papers on conservation, dissemination, and utilization of archaeology resources.