Njabulo Chipangura is Assistant Professor of African Anthropology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where he specializes in museum anthropology and heritage studies. He joined Maynooth in February 2025, following his role as Curator of Anthropology/Living Cultures at Manchester Museum, University of Manchester (2022–2025). Prior to that, he spent over a decade as Curator of Archaeology at the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, based at Mutare Museum (2009–2020).
He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, MA in Museum and Heritage Studies from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and a BA Honours in Museum Studies from Midlands State University, Zimbabwe.
Chipangura’s research spans museum anthropology, heritage studies, and social archaeology, focusing on decolonial approaches to knowledge production, representation, and collection practices. His work critically engages with the coloniality embedded in museums and advocates for collaborative, community-based methodologies. He is widely published in journals such as African Arts, Museum Worlds, Museum Anthropology, Museum International, Curator, Museum Management & Curatorship, and Museums & Social Issues. His publications include: Museums as Agents for Social Change (Routledge, 2021) and Race, Genetics, History: New Practices, New Approaches (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
He serves on the editorial boards of Museum International and Museum and Society (Managing Editor), is a board member of ICOM’s Collections Committee (COMCOL), and a curatorial advisory committee member for Museum Lab, Nat Kunde Museum in Germany. He also received the British Council’s Kenya/UK Follow-Up Research Grant in 2025.
As the inaugural fellow of the Restitution and Reparation: Africa and the Post-Colonial Condition fellowship, hosted in Fall 2025, Chipangura investigates the histories of secret, sacred, ceremonial, and ritual objects from Southern Africa held at the National Museum of Ireland. His project examines how these objects, often obtained through colonial violence, grave robbing, punitive expeditions, or missionary collecting, were systematized through Western taxonomies that erased indigenous epistemologies. His research addresses provenance gaps and epistemic erasures in these collections and advocates for restorative methodologies of engagement.
