Mandipa Ndlovu, Myth, Memory, and Political Settlements in the City: Compounded Disadvantage and a Path for Plausible Futures

On 23 September 2026, Mandipa Ndlovu succesfully defended her dissertation Myth, memory, and political settlements in the city: compounded disadvantage and a path for plausible futures at Leiden University.

Mandipa Ndlovu's PhD project is entitled ‘Myth, Memory, and Political Settlements in the City: Compounded Disadvantage and a Path for Plausible Futures’. Unpacking nuanced metanarratives from 1980-present, the project interlinks the legacies, realities and futures of industrial development to civil-military relations which underpin counter-urbanisation trends and policies in Zimbabwe’s second largest city. Locating this discussion within the current precarity of Zimbabwe’s young working-age population, Mandipa seeks to expose avenues towards sustainable socio-political, as well as economic futures for this demographic.