Nthabiseng Mokoena

Nthabiseng Mokoena-Mokhali is an archaeologist and academic who is a lecturer at the National University of Lesotho. As of 2021 she was the only woman in Lesotho to work as an archaeologist.

Career Mokoena-Mokhali's career began when she was working as a Field Technician in Lesotho on the Metolong Cultural Resource Management project. However, she has been interested in the past from a young age and says that it was the "powerful experience" of finding out her own family history which inspires her still. After working on the Metolong research project she began to study at the University of the Witwatersrand - first for an Honours Degree then later for a Master's degree. For her PhD, she joined the University of Cape Town. Mokoena's community work also involves ethnographic research, which informs wider understanding of how communities connect to and understand 'heritage' and 'their heritage. At Masakala there was a distinction between public heritage and material culture, which was 'national' and so belonged to the community, and a private cultural heritage of initiation practices, which was private and secretive and so also belonged to the community. She also demonstrated that official heritage management plans do not value, nor take into account, indigenous beliefs; these beliefs must be at the forefront of any strategy in order for people locally to feel valued and involved.

Mokoena-Mokhali intends to extend the School of Archaeology at the National University of Lesotho, as well as extending its study to primary and secondary school students in the country. She is also a co-author of the Historical Dictionary of Lesotho

Publications