Dr Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu completed his undergraduate studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and obtained a PhD in Archaeology from Newcastle University in the UK. He has been doing research at the University of Pretoria since 2013.

“UP has provided me with extensive support in terms of funding and skills, such as supervising postgraduate students,” he says.

Dr Ndlovu’s focus areas are Southern African rock art, heritage management in Southern Africa and the political history of archaeology. He has two books on review, one on rock art and the other on the decolonisation of heritage management in South Africa. Dr Ndlovu is part of an international group of researchers who are collaborating on the Sustainability of Rock Art Tourism (SORAT) project, which is focused on South African and Namibian rock art.

In addition to publishing journal articles and book chapters, Dr Ndlovu has spent the past 18 months writing two book manuscripts and is launching new research projects next year.

According to Dr Ndlovu, his research contributes to the betterment of the world because it is vital to know about our roots as human beings. “If we know our roots, it helps us to determine our destiny and enables us to live in harmony with one another and the earth that hosts us,” he says. He adds that his research matters because it contributes another layer of knowledge to our attempts to study the past. More importantly, it also provides an African perspective to the discipline of archaeology.

His research efforts are inspired by his desire to see transformation in his discipline, given the perspective he has on what the field of archaeology was like when he began his journey 26 years ago.

“I have always set my own journey, inspired by my late father who had no formal education but who always wanted me to achieve the highest academic level possible,” he says. “I’m still on that journey.”

He hopes to attain full professorship and be the first African of South African descent to reach this level in his academic discipline.

Dr Ndlovu’s advice to school learners or undergraduates who are interested in his field is to be focused and work hard from the beginning. “With a clear goal in mind, it is easier to reach the top and overcome challenges along the way. More importantly, have love for what you do, as that will give you the strength to get through the rough patches.”

Dr Ndlovu is a soccer fan and enjoys a few other sporting codes. Over the years, he has developed an interest in the outdoors and travelling.

Professor Innocent Pikirayi joined the University of Pretoria (UP) in 2004. He is Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, where he is responsible for postgraduate education and research. He is a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe.  

In terms of how his field of research, African archaeology, contributes to the betterment of the world, Prof Pikirayi says: “Archaeology examines cultural and human-induced environmental changes over time, determining trends and patterns, and seeks to make sense of these. It offers a unique perspective on human history and culture, and helps us to understand not only where and when people lived on this planet, but also how they have shaped it and continue to modify it. Such information is important in understanding the current human condition.”

His research is cross-disciplinary. Prof Pikirayi works with researchers such as Prof Søren Kristiansen of the Department of Geoscience at Aarhus University, Denmark, and Dr Federica Sulas, a geo-archaeologist at Cambridge University’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in the UK.

Prof Pikirayi is part of an international team of scholars from Africa, Europe and the US that is studying ancient complex societies in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the Great Zimbabwe civilisation. The team makes use of approaches in historical ecology, geoarchaeology and conventional archaeology. The collaborative research on Great Zimbabwe goes back to 2015/2016, and focuses on the role of water in socio-political formation. Highlights of this research involve the remapping of ancient and present-day water features on the site using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) mapping, which revealed how the ancient community managed and conserved water resources.

As far as role models go, Prof Pikirayi points to Peter Storr Garlake (1934 – 2011), an architect, archaeologist and author of the book Great Zimbabwe (Thames and Hudson, 1973). Garlake taught him at undergraduate level and inspired his early career in archaeology. Prof Pikirayi has written a tribute to Garlake.

As for his early career as a scholar, Prof Pikirayi credits his doctoral supervisor Prof Paul JJ Sinclair as being highly influential, especially his doctoral thesis, ‘Space, time, and social formation: A territorial approach to the archaeology and anthropology of Zimbabwe and Mozambique c 0 – 1700 AD’ (Uppsala University, 1987). He also owes his growth as a senior scholar in archaeology to the numerous interactions and collaborations he has had with Prof Peter Ridgway Schmidt of the University of Florida, who encouraged him to employ locally grounded theories in understanding the African past.

Prof Pikirayi hopes to become a leading scholar in African archaeology, and use archaeology as an avenue towards other frontiers of knowledge (such as volcanology, plate tectonics, and water and soil sediments) about the origins of Earth.

“Archaeology is about the human experience and condition over time, so it is important to understand past lifeways and how these have developed to the present day. That is why my research matters,” he says.

“Such past experiences are also important to us in terms of our broader social and cultural context and how we have shaped the world in the form that we see it, live in it and experience it,” he adds. “Some of the lessons we learn from deep history, which archaeology is part of, hold fundamental clues towards understanding the modern human crisis, such as water scarcity, environment and climate change. Archaeology is the surest way of confirming that humans are changing Earth’s environment at an unprecedented timescale. The very same humans need to put mechanisms in place to halt this. My work at Great Zimbabwe speaks to these broader realities.”

His advice to school learners or undergraduates who are interested in his field is to realise that archaeology is not primarily about the past but about how the past speaks to the present.

“Once you understand this, learning archaeological theory and methods become extremely easy. In fact, practising archaeology in the field and in the laboratory becomes a passion.”

His hobbies include landscape gardening, hiking and mountain climbing. In December 2020, during the pandemic, he scaled Mount Kilimanjaro to Uhuru Peak, the highest summit in Africa.