Reimagining Reproduction

Making Babies, Making Kin, and Citizens in Africa

October 2021 - Septmber 2026


Principal Investigators:

Professor Nolwazi Mkhwanazi and Professor Deevia Bhana


Funded by the Wellcome Trust, Reimagining Reproduction is an interdisciplinary research project that critically examines how reproduction—both biological and social—is understood, practiced, and shaped across Africa. The project is led by Professor Nolwazi Mkhwanazi (University of Pretoria) as the Principal Investigator, with Professor Deevia Bhana (University of KwaZulu-Natal) as the Co-Investigator. For more details, visit: https://reimagining-reproduction.africa/

Reimagining Reproduction investigates a key empirical question: How is the making of babies and their socialization—through care, kinning, and preparation for citizenship—(re)imagined in the context of rapidly shifting social, economic, and planetary conditions?

By framing reproduction through the lens of re-imagination, we critically assess dominant narratives that portray it as a biological given, associated with abundance, pathology, mortality, or irresponsibility. Instead, we foreground scarcity, acknowledging that the absence of children may result not only from biological infertility but also from social, environmental, and moral factors.

Central to our approach is the concept of longing—how the desire for children, or the choice to avoid reproduction, reflects broader transformations in society. This includes aspirations for new beginnings and forms of emancipation, whether from heteronormative structures, traditional notions of authority, or constraints on individual autonomy. Our research explores the intersectional dynamics of reproduction, considering how it is experienced across different ages, races, abilities, genders, and LGBTQI+ identities.

If you are interested in engaging with our work, reach out via our website: https://reimagining-reproduction.africa/


Research Team

Professor Nolwazi Mkhwanazi is an anthropologist based at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS) at the University of Pretoria. She is a co-founder of the Medical and Health Humanities Africa (MHHA) network, an interdisciplinary initiative that fosters critical engagement with health, medicine, and the human condition across the continent. Her research focuses on youth, sexuality, sex education, and sexual health interventions in Southern Africa, with fieldwork spanning Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa. Through her work, she examines the intersections of gender, health, and social change, exploring how young people navigate sexual and reproductive health in different sociocultural contexts.

 
Professor Deevia Bhana is the DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her research advances an interdisciplinary understanding of sexuality and gender across the young life course, drawing on feminist, queer, critical masculinity studies, and new feminist materialism. In addition to her research, she is deeply committed to mentorship and capacity-building, supervising a large cohort of postgraduate students and actively shaping the next generation of scholars in gender and childhood sexuality studies. As an NRF B1-rated researcher, she is recognized for her impactful scholarship and leadership in the field.

 

Postdoctoral Fellows 

Dr Roselyn Kanyemba Dr Tariro Moyana Dr Saibu Mutaru Dr Simon Mutebi Dr Lilian Owoko Dr Anitha Tingira

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- Author Charlotte Visagie

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