Tshegofatso Realeboga Phatshwane is a Pan-African Feminist Human Rights Defender, Anthropologist-in-training and Researcher with a keen interest in the subject areas of decolonisation, knowledge production and social movements for social justice. Currently, she is enrolled for an MA in Anthropology degree at the University of the Witwatersrand (wits), where her thesis explores the impact of COVID-19 mobility regimes on African Womxn Human Rights and Feminist movements. During her year in residence, she graduated with distinction to earn a BA Honours in Anthropology degree from WITS, and her research report titled “The “Political Theatre” Of South Africa’s Discovery of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant” was awarded Best Honours Research Paper. Before embarking on this unfolding postgraduate academic sojourn, Tshego graduated from the University of Botswana with a BA in Social Sciences degree, majoring in Psychology and Sociology.

Tshegofatso is the former Info & Publicity Chair and, later, Research Assistant for YWLC- an African Gender Institute affiliated action research-based project aimed at promoting and advancing gender equality & equity in university campuses; Co-creator and former radio producer for the Upright African Show- a socio-political radio show aimed at engaging young Africans, intra continent and diaspora, on issues affecting their Africanity; Co-founder of Feminism in Botswana- a digital platform dedicated to generating and facilitating intersectional feminist discourse that builds individual agency and collective power; and lastly, an alumna of the Study of the US Institute (SUSI) on Civic Engagement for Student Leaders (2017 cohort).

Professionally, she has worked for Urgent Action Fund Africa Human Rights Watch and contributed to some UN-affiliated projects. Having been appointed a Writing Fellow within the WITS Anthropology Department, she has also tutored the courses: 1. Race and What it Means to Be Human, 2. Anthropology of Medicine and the Body, and 3. Embodied Relations.

Overall, Tshegofatso’s efforts all aim to advance Africa as a whole but with specific regard to continental integration and the advancement of womxn’s human rights through an Anthropological perspective.