Prof Brian Raftopoulos

Prof Brian Raftopoulos is a Zimbabwean scholar and activist, and an Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela School. Formally Associate Professor of Development Studies at the University of Zimbabwe, he moved to Cape Town at the end of March 2006 and is currently the Director of Research and Advocacy in the Ukuthula Trust, an NGO dealing with human rights issues in Zimbabwe. He is also a Senior Scholar-Democratic Governance, at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance. He has published widely on Zimbabwean history, labour history, historiography, politics, and economic issues.  Prof. Raftopoulos was also a Mellon Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape from 2009-2016. He serves as the Co-Chair of the Editorial Board  of the Journal of Southern African Studies and on the Advisory Board of Kronos, Southern African Histories. In addition, he has been a civic activist in Zimbabwe since the 1990’s. He was a member of the founding Task Force of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) 1998-2000, the editor of the NCA journal Agenda from 1999-2001, as well as the first Chair of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition from 2001-2003.

Research Interests: Zimbabwean History and Politics; Labour History and the Struggles for Democratisation on the African Continent.

Journal Articles

• Explaining Zimbabwe’s 2023 Harmonised Elections: Voter Suppression and Voter Intimidation. Zimbabwe Review, The Journal of the Britain Zimbabwe Society, Issue 23/3 September 2023, Raftopoulos, B. and Dorman, S.

• Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies (ZIDS): The Early Context of Sam Mayo’s Intellectual Development. Agrarian South Journal of Political Economy, 5, 2&3, 2017, pp. 187-201.   

• Terrence Ranger’s Return to University of Zimbabwe in the late 1990’s. Journal of Southern African Studies, 41, 5, 2015, pp.1122-1125.

• Zimbabwean Politics in the Post 2013 Election Period. Africa Spectrum, 49, 2, 2014, pp. 91-103.

• The 2013 Elections in Zimbabwe: the end of an era. Journal of Southern African Studies, 39 (4): 971-988, Raftopoulos, B. (2013).

  Working Paper

• Navigating Turbulence in Zimbabwe. The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town, 2021, 46pp.

Book Chapters

• Education in Zimbabwe in the first two decades of Independence.  R. Pilossof (ed), Fending for Ourselves- Youth in Zimbabwe 1980-2020. Harare, Weaver Press, 2021.

• Trade Unions, Labour and Politics in Zimbabwe since the late 1990’s.  M. Tendi, J. McGregor and J. Alexander (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Zimbabwe Politics.

• Zimbabwe: Regional Politics and Dynamics.  In Oxford Encyclopaedia of African Politics. Oxford University Press.

  Op-eds

• The 2023 Zimbabwe elections - Zanu PF's authoritarian tactics already in play. Daily Maverick, 2022.
• The Challenges of Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe. Southern African Political Economy Series Trust, Dialogues Series, No 13,2022.