Dr Thulisile Bhuda
Nominee's Province:
Mpumalanga
Age:
31
Project Name/Description:
Academic – University of Mpumalanga
Dr Thulisile Bhuda is a distinguished academic with a focus on indigenous studies. She describes herself as a bubbly and hardworking individual who is career-driven and passionate about education. In 2019, Dr Bhuda obtained her Master's degree with distinction, followed by a record-time PhD in 2022. Owing to her outstanding work as an academic, she received the Voice of Heritage as well as Alumni Excellence awards in 2023. “I feel obligated to add to the bodies of knowledge, which is why I opted to become an academic. Additionally, I have a strong enthusiasm for imparting knowledge and using it to inspire colleagues and students. Having interactions with academics helps me to broaden my perspective on the world and find ways that I can use my work to promote growth and change,” she says. According to Dr Bhuda, in 2013, North West University established an academic programme called the Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, the first of its kind in Africa. “My studies were proving mathematical ideas and concepts in the Ndebele art. I was therefore proving that Ndebele women who are art custodians use symmetrical geometry in their art, yet they never attended any formal education,” she explains. Dr Bhuda believes South Africans, through education, have managed to travel the world and fulfil the dreams their parents had in the apartheid era. “As an academic myself, I can confirm that academic spaces are now occupied by young people. This was possible because of democracy and the opportunities it came with.”
