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Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari: Namibian Political Scientist
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Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari (born on 8 December 1974) in Windhoek, Namibia is a Namibian political scientist. Hengari spent much of his early years in Windhoek under the brutal apartheid system when Namibia was still administered as a colony of South Africa. As a young student at high school, he participated actively in the student protests whose objective was fight against the injustces of apartheid. After completing high school at A. Shipena High School in Katutura, he enrolled for B.A in Political Science and Sociology, with minors in History and German at the University of Namibia. After his studies at the University of Namibia, he went on to teach at his former high school for three years. After teaching for three years, he went to South Africa where he completed his M.A degree in International Studies at the [. His Masters thesis at Stellenbosch focussed on the regional economic partnership agreements between the European Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). While at the University of Stellenbosch, he also served as a tutor in the Department of Political Science. After completion of his M.A, he was asked by the former Prime Minister of Namibia, Dr. Hage Geingob to serve as chief of staff in the Office of the Prime minister. Upon the resingation of the Prime Minister, he served as coordinator for the Civil Service College project for a few months before he left for France in March 2003. After following intensive french language courses at the Université de Franche Comté, he first completed a diploma in French history and civilisation at the Université Paris-Sorbonne IV, before he proceeded to do an M-Phil in International Relations at the prestigious Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He is currently completing his Ph.D in Political Science (specializing in International Relations) at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. His Ph.D is focussing on the transformation of French and British strategies in conflict management in Sub-saharan Africa. As part of his Ph.D research, he was a research intern in 2007 at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations in New York. Hengari is also weekly political columnist for Namibia's leading English daily, The Namibian. He provides regular commentary for other newspapers in Namibia such New Era on political events and developments. His articles are equally taken up by continental news networks such Allafrica.com. Some of his newspaper opinion articles have provoked incendiary debates which have oftentimes pitted him against various sections of the country's establishment. He has given various lectures on Namibian politics in Europe, of which the most recent was in Switzerland, Basel. As a political intellectual, his work largely focus on the deepening of democratic traditions in Africa. His articles are influenced by the epitemology of the Princeton professor of philosophy, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Achille Mbembe, Valentin Y Mudimbe as well as general European philosophy.
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