Department of Political Sciences

Prof Everisto Benyera

College of Human Sciences
School of Social Sciences
Department: Political Sciences
Professor
Tel: 012 429 3982
E-mail: benyee1@unisa.ac.za

Qualifications

  • D Lit et Phil African Politics (Unisa, 2014)

Currently teaching

  • PLC1502 (Understanding the State)
  • PLC2601 (Understanding Political Behaviour and Participation)

Fields of academic interests

  • Decoloniality
  • Grassroots healing and reconciliation mechanisms
  • HIV and AIDS
  • OVCs
  • Gender and women’s rights
  • Community based training and monitoring
  • Coping mechanisms of the poor and the marginalised
  • The human rights of minority groups

Field of Specialisation

  • Indigenous, customary and non-state transitional justice
  • Transitologies
  • Peacebuilding
  • Transformative justice

Books

Books

  • Benyera, Everisto. (2022). The Failure of the International Criminal Court in Africa: Decolonising Global Justice. Routledge: London and New York. ISBN 9781032212333.
  • Benyera, Everisto. (ed.). 2022. Africa and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Curse or Cure? Springer: Cham. ISBN 9783030875237.
  • Benyera, Everisto. (2021). The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Recolonisation of Africa: The Coloniality of Data. Routledge: London and New York. ISBN 9780367744151.
  • Benyera, Everisto. (ed.). 2020. Breaking the Colonial “Contract”: From Oppression to Autonomous Decolonial Futures. Lexington: Lanham, Boulder, New York and London. ISBN 9781793622730.
  • Benyera, Everisto. (ed.). 2020. Reimagining Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in Africa Challenging Discourse and Searching for Alternative Paths. Springer: Cham. ISBN 9783030251437.
  • Benyera, Everisto. (ed.). 2019. Indigenous, Traditional, and Non-State Transitional Justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. Lexington: Lanham, New York and London. ISBN 9781498592826.

Book Chapters

  • Benyera, E. 2020. The Colonial State is the Problem in Africa, in Benyera, E. (ed). Reimagining Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in African Challenging Discourse and Searching for Alternative Paths. Springer: Cham, pp. 21-35. ISBN 978-3-030-25143-7.
  • Benyera, E. Francis R. and Jazbhay RH. 2020. Challenging Discourse and Searching for Alternative Paths: Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in Africa, in Benyera, E. (ed). Reimagining Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in Africa Challenging Discourse and Searching for Alternative Paths. Springer: Cham, pp. 3-20. ISBN 978-3-030-25143-7.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. ‘South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Nigeria’s Oputa Panel: Comparison, Lessons and the Future of Truth Commissions in Africa’. In Tella, O. (ed). Nigeria-South Africa Relations and Regional Hegemonic Competence. Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. ‘Transitology, Transitional Justice and Transformative Justice’ in Benyera, E (ed). Indigenous, Traditional, and Non-State Transitional Justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. Rowman and Littlefield: New York. ISBN 9781498592826.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. ‘A Dozen Transitional Justice Realities and Some Preliminary Problematisation’, in Benyera, E (ed). Indigenous, Traditional, and Non-State Transitional Justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. Rowman and Littlefield: New York.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. ‘The Case for Indigenous, Traditional and Non-State Transitional Justice’, in Benyera, E (ed). Indigenous, Traditional, and Non-State Transitional Justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. Rowman and Littlefield: New York.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. “The Barrel of the Gun Guiding Politics or Politics Guiding the Barrel of the Gun: On the Role of the Military During Political Transitions In Zimbabwe.” In Dmitri M. Bondarenko and Marina L. Butovskaya (eds.), The Omnipresent Past. Historical Anthropology of Africa and African Diaspora. Moscow: LRC Publishing House, pp. 273-299. ISBN 978-5-907117-76-1
  • Mtapuri, O and Benyera, E. 2019. “Displacements in Colonial Zimabwe: Contestations, Meanings and Some Lessons.” In Warikandwa, V. Nhemachena, A. Mpofu N. and H. Chitimira (eds.), Grid-Locked African Economic Sovereignty: Decolonising the Neo-Impeerrla Socio-Economic and Legal Force-fields in the 21st Century. Langaa: Bamenda, Cameroon, pp. 137-158. ISBN: 978 9956 550 30 2.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. “African Borders and the Coloniality of Human Movement.” In Innocent Moyo and Chris. C. Nshimbi. (eds.), African Borders, Conflict, Regional and Continental Integration, Routledge: London. ISBN: 9780 36717 4835.
  • Benyera, Everisto. (ed.). 2019. Indigenous, Traditional, and Non-State Transitional Justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. Rowman and Littlefield: New York.
  • Benyera E. 2018. ‘Xenophobia-Coloniality Nexus: Zimbabwe’s Experience’. In Adeoye O. Akinola (eds). The Political Economy of Xenophobia in Africa. Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development. Springer: Cham, pp. 135-151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64897-2_11  
  • Benyera, E. 2018. ‘Colonialism, the Theft of History and the Quest for Justice for Africa’. In Nhemachena A., Warikandwa T.V. and SK Amoo (eds). Social and Legal Theory in the Age of Decoloniality: (Re-)Envisioning African Jurisprudence in the 21st Century. Langaa: Bamenda, Cameroon, pp. 121-164.
  • Benyera, E, Mtapuri, O & Nhemachena A. 2018. ‘The Man, Human Rights, Transitional Justice and African Jurisprudence in the Twenty-First Century’. In Nhemachena A., Warikandwa T.V. and SK Amoo (eds). Social and Legal Theory in the Age of Decoloniality: (Re-)Envisioning African Jurisprudence in the 21st Century. Langaa: Bamenda, Cameroon, pp. 187-218.
  • Mtapuri, O, Nhemachena, A and Benyera E. 2018. ‘Towards a Jurisprudential Theory of Migration, Foot-looseness and Nimble-footedness: The New World Order or Pan-Africanism?’ In Nhemachena A., Warikandwa T.V. and SK Amoo (eds). Social and Legal Theory in the Age of Decoloniality: (Re-)Envisioning African Jurisprudence in the 21st Century. Langaa: Bamenda, Cameroon, pp. 236-298.Benyera, E. 2017. ‘Joshua Nkomo on Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe’. In Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. (ed.).  Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo of Zimbabwe: Politics, Power and Memory. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 279-295. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60555-5_12
Book chapters
  • Benyera Everisto. 2020. The Lamentations of Thomas Mapfumo: Pfumvu Paruzevha as an Expression of Rural Suffering and Resistance in Colonial Zimbabwe, in Ubaldo, Rafiki & Hintjens, Helen (eds.). Music and Peacebuilding: African and Latin American Experiences. Lexington: Lanham, Boulder, New York and London. pp. ISBN 978-1-4985-6748-0, pp. 157-180.
  • Benyera, Everisto. 2020. How and Why is Colonialism a Contract? In Benyera E. (ed.). Breaking the Colonial Contract: From Oppression to Autonomous Decolonial Futures. Lexington: Lanham, Boulder, New York and London. ISBN 978-1-7936-2273-0, pp. 1-28.
  • Benyera, Everisto. (2020). Towards Autonomous Decolonial Futures: Using the Master’s Tool to Destroy the Master’s House, in Benyera E. (ed.). Breaking the Colonial Contract: From Oppression to Autonomous Decolonial Futures. Lexington: Lanham, Boulder, New York and London. ISBN 978-1-7936-2273-0, pp. 259-276.
  • Benyera, E. Francis R. and Jazbhay AH. 2020. Challenging Discourse and Searching for Alternative Paths: Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in Africa, in Benyera, E. (ed). Reimagining Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in Africa Challenging Discourse and Searching for Alternative Paths. Springer: Cham, pp. 3-20. ISBN 978-3-030-25143-7.
  • Benyera, E. 2020. The Colonial State is the Problem in Africa, in Benyera, E. (ed). Reimagining Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in African Challenging Discourse and Searching for Alternative Paths. Springer: Cham, pp. 21-35. ISBN 978-3-030-25143-7.
  • Benyera, E. 2020. Tinkering with the Commission: Zimbabwe’s Use of Commissions of Inquiry as a Transitional Justice Mechanism, in Chitando Ezra, Kelvin Chikonzo, and Nehemiah Chivandikwa (eds.). National Healing, Integration and Reconciliation in Zimbabwe. Routledge: London and New York, pp. 69-82. ISBN 9780367342463
  • Benyera, E. 2019. Transitology, Transitional Justice and Transformative Justice, in Benyera, E (ed). Indigenous, Traditional, and Non-State Transitional Justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. Lexington: Lanham, Boulder, New York and London, pp. 1-17. ISBN 978-1-7936-2273-0.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. A Dozen Transitional Justice Realities and Some Preliminary Problematisation, in Benyera, E (ed). Indigenous, Traditional, and Non-State Transitional Justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. Lexington: Lanham, Boulder, New York and London, pp. 17-32.  ISBN 978-1-7936-2273-0.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. The Case for Indigenous, Traditional and Non-State Transitional Justice, in Benyera, E (ed). Indigenous, Traditional, and Non-State Transitional Justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. Lexington: Lanham, Boulder, New York and London, pp. 33-48. ISBN 978-1-7936-2273-0.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. The Barrel of the Gun Guiding Politics or Politics Guiding the Barrel of the Gun: On the Role of the Military During Political Transitions in Zimbabwe. In Dmitri M. Bondarenko and Marina L. Butovskaya (eds.), The Omnipresent Past. Historical Anthropology of Africa and African Diaspora. Moscow: LRC Publishing House, pp. 273-299. ISBN 978-5-907117-76-1
  • Mtapuri, O and Benyera, E. 2019. Displacements in Colonial Zimabwe: Contestations, Meanings, Consequencies and Some Lessons. In Warikandwa, V. Nhemachena, A. Mpofu N. and H. Chitimira (eds.), Grid-Locked African Economic Sovereignty: Decolonising the Neo-Imperial Socio-Economic and Legal Force-fields in the 21st Century. Langaa: Bamenda, Cameroon, pp. 137-158. ISBN: 978 9956 550 30 2.
  • Benyera, E. 2019. African Borders and the Coloniality of Human Movement. In Innocent Moyo and Chris. C. Nshimbi. (eds.), African Borders, Conflict, Regional and Continental Integration, Routledge: London. ISBN: 9780 36717 4835.DOI 10.4324/9780429057014
  • Benyera, E. 2019. South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Nigeria’s Oputa Panel: Comparison, Lessons and the Future of Truth Commissions in Africa. In Tella, O. (ed). Nigeria-South Africa Relations and Regional Hegemonic Competence. Springer: Cham, ISBN:978-3-030-00080-6, pp. 183-202.
  • Mtapuri, O, Nhemachena, A and Benyera E. 2018. Towards a Jurisprudential Theory of Migration, Foot-looseness and Nimble-footedness: The New World Order or Pan-Africanism? In Nhemachena A., Warikandwa T.V. and SK Amoo (eds). Social and Legal Theory in the Age of Decoloniality: (Re-)Envisioning African Jurisprudence in the 21st Century. Langaa: Bamenda, Cameroon, pp. 236-298.
  • Benyera, E, Mtapuri, O & Nhemachena A. 2018. The Man, Human Rights, Transitional Justice and African Jurisprudence in the Twenty-First Century. In Nhemachena A., Warikandwa T.V. and SK Amoo (eds). Social and Legal Theory in the Age of Decoloniality: (Re-)Envisioning African Jurisprudence in the 21st Century. Langaa: Bamenda, Cameroon, pp. 187-218.
  • Benyera, E. 2018. Colonialism, the Theft of History and the Quest for Justice for Africa. In Nhemachena A., Warikandwa T.V. and SK Amoo (eds). Social and Legal Theory in the Age of Decoloniality: (Re-)Envisioning African Jurisprudence in the 21st Century. Langaa: Bamenda, Cameroon, pp. 121-164.
  • Benyera E. 2018. Xenophobia-Coloniality Nexus: Zimbabwe’s Experience. In Adeoye O. Akinola (eds). The Political Economy of Xenophobia in Africa. Springer: Cham, pp. 135-151.
  • Benyera, E. 2017. Joshua Nkomo on Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe. In Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. (ed.).  Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo of Zimbabwe: Politics, Power and Memory. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 279-295. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60555-5_12.

Journal articles

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

  • Immediate Past Editor: Politeia: The Journal of Political Sciences and Public Administration and Management
  • Associate editor: Strategic Review for Southern Africa

Projects

  • Benyera, Everisto. (ed.). 2020. Reimagining Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in Africa Challenging Discourse and Searching for Alternative Paths. Springer: Cham.