Ndjodi Ndeunyema is an MPhil in Law Candidate at Oxford University and has an offer to continue as a DPhil student in October 2017. Ndjodi has previously completed the MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice and the BCL from Oxford. Hailing from the south western corner of Africa, Ndjodi previously served as the Vice President of the Africa Society and was head of the three member working committee that was mandated with drafting the Africa Society Constitution in 2015/16.

Ndjodi is keen to build upon the successes that he has helped the Society register this year: from the scholarship portfolio and the work on increasing access in collaboration with the Africa Oxford Initiative, the increased social presence and relevance of the Society in the lives of members, and the new model of organisation adopted by the Oxford Africa Conference this year.

Apart from his studies and sporting activities, Ndjodi is an Editor of the prestigious Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, an amateur footballer and pursues subsistence farming whenever back home in his Namibian village.

Nelisa Nchimunya Tebeka is a proud and patriotic Zambian reading for a DPhil in Immunology and Pathology. She previously completed an MSc in Marine Microbiology at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen, Germany. Nelisa also holds a BSc in Biochemistry from Jacobs University in Bremen.

Nelisa is a co-founder of AfroLindaz clothing line. Afrolindaz is a social entrepreneurship project whose primary objective is to use fashion and crafts as a means of providing employment and education opportunities on the African continent. It promotes employment by encouraging skilled African tailors and artisans to make products that are subsequently sold on the European market. Afrolindaz promotes educational endeavours by giving a percentage of its profits to education projects in Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia and South Africa. Nelisa is also actively involved in two mentorship programs for ambitious but economically disadvantaged African students. She helps them with applications for scholarships to study at prestigious universities overseas.

Nelisa is passionate about policies, projects and ideas that aim to provide equal access to educational opportunities for all. She hopes to work with the Africa Society to help advocate for more opportunities for Africans to study at Oxford University.

Tonny Muthee is trained as a Clinical/Research nurse (BSN) and as a Public health practitioner (MSc.PH). He is now Doctoral student in Primary Health Care at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar (2016). His interest is in the politics of health care, paying attention to the intersection of public health, primary care and health policies around non-communicable diseases in Africa.

Tonny firmly believes the position of Social Secretary to be instrumental in the cohesiveness of a society and has maturated this conviction while serving in different leadership positions across different platforms. Last year, he served as the President of the Public Health Society at the Oxford Brookes University where his main role was to create awareness and advocate for action on various public health issues afflicting different populations in Oxford and across the globe.

During his tenure in that role, he has come to appreciate the value of creating and enhancing a sense of community to inspire and overcome challenges. He has learnt that one of the simple yet important ways to create such environments is through organising social initiatives that are guided by the values of inclusivity, tolerance and a commitment to one another. He helped shed light on the alarming prevalence of mental health issues amongst the BME community at Oxford Brookes, advocating for more support to this group of students. In addition to this, he was actively involved in successful University election campaigns to have the first black woman elected as the President of the Brookes Student Union.

Lastly, prior to the above role he served as the chairperson of the Nairobi University Nursing Students’ Association for two years where his main goal was to increase the visibility of graduate nurses at the University and in the communities. This role led him to organise many medical outreach campaigns and social events both at the university and in the communities aimed at creating awareness on the vital role that nurses play in the Kenyan health care system.

Rocco Zizzamia is a South African student, currently in his second year of the MPhil in Development Studies. In his academic work, he is concerned with understanding the drivers of poverty and inequality in South Africa, which he approaches through studying social stratification and poverty dynamics.

Rocco is serving as the manager of the Scholarship Portfolio on the AfriSoc committee. Having benefited from the opportunity of studying at Oxford on a scholarship, he is passionate about extending these opportunities to other Africans – who remain grossly underrepresented at Oxford. Through the work of the Scholarship Portfolio, he will be working to ensure that the AfriSoc plays its role in expanding access for Africans at the University of Oxford.

Mary Jiyani was born and raised in Malawi. She is a member of Balliol College reading for an MPhil in law. She also holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) from the University of Oxford.

Mary was the first female Malawian to be awarded the Rhodes Scholarship and is also a Mandela Rhodes Scholar. Mary is actively involved in a Malawian organization Maphunziro265 which works to increase access to funding for education by providing financial support as well as mentorship to Malawian youth on applications to scholarships and prestigious institutions.

Mary strongly believes in the committee’s vision of inclusion of all African students in the society, the society’s entrenchment in the University and in increasing the representation of African students in the University

Noxolo Ntaka is currently reading for an MSc African studies degree at Oxford’s School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies. She holds an undergraduate degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, including an honours degree in Political studies.

Prior to starting her postgraduate degree at Oxford, Noxolo worked as an intern at the Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2016 she served as the Secretary General of the Students’ Representative Council at the University of Cape Town.

She is also an alumni of the 2016 South Africa-Washington International Program (SAWIP) which afforded her the opportunity to intern at the United States Congress in Washington, D.C. in the office of Democrat congressman, Donald M. Payne, Jr. She has a particular interest in the study of Africa and it’s representation in academia as well as post-colonial theory and the study of violence.

Emmanuel Taiwo is a Master of Public Policy candidate and an Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG) scholar at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. Having worked in environmental consulting, sustainable development research, and clean energy policy advocacy for about 4 years, he brings rich competence to the Oxford Africa Conference.

A true Nigerian by birth, Emmanuel holds a first class bachelor’s from the University of Lagos, a Master’s with Distinction from the University of Greenwich, and exudes a rare passion for the African continent. He hopes to see a new Africa, where economic growth is ecologically sustainable and socially inclusive, leaving no African behind; an Africa that plays a more vibrant role not only in uplifting its people, but also in tackling collective global challenges.

Jeffrey Misomali is an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine candidate from Malawi. An Environmental Science graduate of the University of Malawi, he spent his early career with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), supporting various African governments to strengthen public healthcare systems, towards achieving universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment and care.

Prior to enrolling at Oxford, he was a Program Officer at the ELMA Philanthropies where he developed and managed grant investments to improve maternal and child health outcomes in Southern Africa.

His research interest is on understanding the utilization and scaling of evidence-based healthcare interventions and tools, and how this can influence healthcare policy and financing in resource limited settings. Jeffrey is an alum of the Global Health Corps and Aspen New Voices Fellowship Programs and his other interests are in entrepreneurship and agriculture in Africa.