Lennon Mhishi is an anthropologist whose interdisciplinary work spans interests in Africa and its diasporas; museums; material culture and art practices; the afterlives of slavery and colonialism; and approaches to contemporary forms of exploitation, forced labour and human rights in different African countries. He has experience in migration and diaspora, heritage, music, and other arts-based, creative approaches to knowledge-making and engagement. Before joining UBC, Lennon worked at the University of Oxford, based at the Pitt Rivers Museum. He was part of the project, “Reconnecting Objects”, funded by the VW Stiftung. He collaborated with partners in Oxford (UK), Cape Town (South Africa), Dakar (Senegal), Dschang (Cameroon) and Berlin (Germany). The project, among other things, explored colonial collections—as well as art practices—and the possibilities of mobilising African and diasporic communities in rethinking these collections.
Where are Nehanda's remains?: A Zimbabwean Search in the Context of Shifting Museum Politics (In Fifteen Colonial Thefts: A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums); Chimurenga epistemologies: diasporic entanglements, colonial afterlives and the struggle of thinking other worlds
