Alcinda Honwana


Alcinda M. Honwana is a Mozambican anthropologist who is the Strategic Director of the Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa at the London School of Economics. Her research considers young people and leadership. She has served as an adviser for the United Nations and the Social Science Research Council.

Early life and education

Honwana was born in Mozambique. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Eduardo Mondlane University, specialising in history and geography. She moved to Paris for her graduate studies, working toward a master's degree in sociology at the University of Paris VIII. For her doctoral studies Honwana moved to the United Kingdom, joining SOAS University of London to study social anthropology. Her early research considered trauma and healing in Mozambique.

Research

After completing her doctorate in 1996, Honwana was appointed a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Here she served on the board of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa and worked in the United Nations Office for Children and Armed Conflict led by Olara Otunnu. Honwana held a visiting position at The New School teaching a graduate course in Anthropology. She joined the Board of the African Studies Association and acted as an adviser for the United Nations.
In 2005 Honwana returned to the United Kingdom, where she was made Chair of International Development at the Open University. There she coined the term waithood, which describes the prolonged period of time African children face between childhood and adulthood. Waithood is the time in which young people are “no longer children in need of care, but … are still unable to become independent adults,”. Honwana has argued that youth protest movements arise because of economic and societal pressures. Honwana argued that youth-led protests often struggle to translate their political aspirations into meaningful action, particularly because they struggle to articulate what they want to achieve. She was made the 2007 Prince Claus Chair for Development and Equity at Utrecht University the Netherlands. She delivered a TED talk in London in 2013, where she discussed how young people in Africa must fight for their socioeconomic and political rights.
Honwana was appointed to the London School of Economics in 2015, where she was made Strategic Director at LSE's Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa. Here she has led calls to decolonise curricula. In 2018 Honwana delivered the Kapuscinski Development Lecture of the United Nations Development Programme, where she discussed youth movements.

Selected publications

Academic journals

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