Geostrategist · Innovator · Futurist · Institution-Builder
Born in the beautiful country of South Africa, I bring interdisciplinary research, teaching, speaking, and consulting to bear on Africa's most complex challenges of today, and those taking shape for tomorrow.
EXPERTISE
- Africa-East Asia Geostrategy & Political Risk. I enjoy finding better ways of understanding Africa's relations with East Asian countries, including China, japan, and South Korea, looking at African development within this context. I have done extensive research in China. My current work examines Africa–China academic diplomacy and the role of African languages within the great-power competition now unfolding across the continent.
- African languages and technology. As an innovative intellectuel engagé, I have developed new tools not only for the study of the Zulu language but also its classification for incorporation into tech platforms, including AI. Because of unique insights gained from my research, I help organizations and market players understand African languages and cultures as engines of economic growth as well as navigate risk in the context of great power competition.
- Institutional Architecture for Africa Engagement. Operational leadership of the largest federally-funded Title VI National Resources Center in a HBCU and largest in the U.S. by enrollment. I design, establish, assess, and grow Africa-oriented programs of study and engagement at U.S. institutions, not just as diversity initiatives, but strategic assets. I bring that operating expertise to universities that share the mission but lack the capacity to carry it alone.
Africa-China Relations, African Development, and African Languages & Tech
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Transforming perspectives in government, industry, and academia through deep expertise on China, Africa, Soft Power, and Great Power Competition
International Day of People of African Descent at Hewlett-Packard, August, 2024
I. TEACH, RESEARCH, SPEAK, AND CONSULT ON THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS:
- Africa-China relations
- South Africa-China relations
- Africa-China academic diplomacy
- African development and China
- China and African languages
- China and the African culture economy
- Zulu language development and technology
II. AFRICA-CHINA WORK
- Quadrilinear Model for South Africa-China Analysis
- Interplay of four most important
- Afro-Sino relationships
- Useful to scholars, policymakers
- and general analysts
- For comprehensive, multi-faceted analysis of relations
- Adaptable for analysis of other
- African countries' relations with China
III. AFRICA-CHINA WORK
- Coined the term African denaissance
- The geo-economic environment pre- and post-Y2K African economic integration and growth initiatives correlated with stagnant
- Effective reversal/deferment of the 'African renaissance'
- Term important for contextualizing South Africa-China relations
Where I have spoken or lectured
African languages and tech
I. Language Work
- I developed the first conjugator, mini dictionary, and theasaurus app by native speaker
- Used experience as a RA in unclassified machine learnin research project
- Ultimate objective: collaborate to integrate the Zulu language int0 tech platforms
- Have isiZulu as a language choice in Microsoft Word settings
II. Language Work
- Created the Zulu Ordinal Prefix System (ZOPS)
- First ever abbreviation of Zulu ordinal numbering for the superscript function
- Similar to English '1st', '2nd', '3rd', etc.
- Similar to French '1er/re', '2e', '3e', etc.
- Adoptable into auto-complete functions
A passion for mentoring the next generation of culturally-competent practitioners, innovators, scholars, and analysts on Africa
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Courses
- South Africa: Trends, Challenges and Emerging Issues
- Rural Development in Africa
- China and Africa Development
- African Language and Culture
- Introduction to Contemporary Africa
- Regional Organizations of Africa
Education
- PhD Howard University, (African Studies)
- MA Warwick University (International Political Economy)
- MIAA Missouri State (International Affairs and Administration)
- BA Utah State (International Studies)
LANGUAGES: English, Zulu, French,
Shona
