NOTE FROM THE EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS EDITION The University of Johannesburg acquired The Thinker in April 2019 f rom Dr Essop Pahad. Over the last decade, The Thinker has gained a reputation as a journal that explores Pan-Af rican issues across fields and times. Ronit Frenkel, as the incoming editor, plans on maintaining the pan-Af rican scope of the journal while increasing its coverage into fields such as books, art, literature and popular cultures. The Thinker is a ‘hybrid’ journal, publishing both journalistic pieces with more academic articles and contributors can now opt to have their submissions peer reviewed. We welcome Af rica-centred articles f rom diverse perspectives, in order to enrich both knowledge of the continent and of issues impacting the continent. - All contributing analysts write in their personal capacity Prof Ronit Frenkel Åsa Eriksson has a PhD in Gender Studies, and currently works as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies at Stockholm University. Research interests include gender, work and neoliberal globalisation, labour and social justice activism, as well as activism for sexual and reproductive rights and justice. Beate Stiehler-Mulder is the W&R Seta Leadership Chair: Gauteng and a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Marketing Management at the University of Johannesburg. She holds a PhD in Industrial Economics and Management f rom KTH in Stockholm, Sweden. She is the winner of an ‘Outstanding Paper’ 2017 f rom the Emerald Literati Network Awards. She was a main Jury Member for the 2020 & 2021 Financial Mail AdFocus Awards, and is currently a judge for South Af rica’s first Youth- Owned-Brand Awards. She also presented a TedTalk in 2022. Charis Harley is a Professor based in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Johannesburg. She holds a Doctorate in Computational and Applied Mathematics f rom the University of the Witwatersrand. She conducts research in the areas of numerical analysis, computational mathematics, machine learning and data science, and has published more than 40 research articles in ISI accredited journals. She is a J. William Fulbright Research Scholar, as well as the recipient of the Carnegie Sandwich Research Grant and Friedel Sellchop Award. Corné Davis is a known gender-based violence and gender identity activist, lecturing undergraduate and postgraduate modules at the Department of Strategic Communication at the University of Johannesburg. She is a Trustee of Matla a Bana, a well-known NGO which campaigns against child rape and secondary abuse; she is also an advisory to TEARS Foundation with whom she is collaborating to publish the GBV victim profile report for South Af rica in 2023. Ebrahim Momoniat is an NRF B2-rated Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Johannesburg. He is a registered professional natural scientist with SACNASP. He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Af rica and the Royal Society of South Af rica. His main areas of research interest are in the study of linear and nonlinear differential equations that arise in the study of heat conduction and fluid dynamics. He is working with Prof Jan Nordström and Prof Charis Harley on developing provably stable numerical methods for solving partial differential equations that arise in studying thermal explosions and anomalous diffusion. Elise M. Dermineur is an Associate Professor of Economic History at Stockholm University (Sweden). Her research interests focus mainly on financial markets and networks. She has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study and the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. Since 2019, she is directing the research V o l u m e 9 5 / 2 0 2 3 | J o u r n a l I S S N : 2 0 7 5 2 4 5 8 initiative Human Economy Lab. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles. Her latest book Before Banks: The Making of Debt and Credit in Preindustrial France will appear next year. Frank Lipnizki is Professor in Chemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Lund University, Sweden since 2017. He heads the Membrane Group at Lund University and manages MemLab – the Industrial membrane process research and development centre – at Lund University. Before he joined Lund University, he worked for 16 years at Alfa Laval – Business Centre Membranes in Denmark. His group is the largest membrane group in Sweden, and its research focus is on the water, energy and food security nexus combined with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. So far, he has published 47 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has given over 100 presentations at international conferences. Currently, he is Council Member and Treasurer of the European Membrane Society. Hedda Krausz Sjögren is CEO and Artistic Director for Colombine Theatre Agency, representing 500 of Scandinavia’s leading playwrights. She was Sweden’s first Counsellor for Cultural Affairs in South Af rica (2017–2021), served as expert advisor for the Swedish government, and began her career in the mid 1990s as an actor, later producer, and playwright. She serves on several boards and advises on issues pertaining to culture and international relations. She holds a BA f rom Bennington College and a Master of Fine Arts f rom the University of Washington. Heidi Richards is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has a background in wastewater, having worked for the City of Cape Town, Scientific Services Division for more than 10 years. Her research area focuses mostly on the use of polymer membranes for the treatment of wastewater and she has published a number of peer-reviewed manuscripts on the topic. Helin Bäckman Kartal is a project coordinator at the Division for Global Partnerships at Uppsala University, Sweden. She is the coordinator for the South Af rica-Sweden University Forum (SASUF), a transformative project that fosters collaboration among 40 universities f rom Sweden and South Af rica. By bringing together researchers, educators, students, university leaders, and various stakeholders, this initiative aims to develop collaborative solutions addressing the challenges presented by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030. Helin holds a MA in International Crisis Management and Peacebuilding. Her academic focus has centred around the exploration of informal finance in South Af rica and the formalisation process of the country’s informal financial sector. Johanna Gondouin is a researcher at the Multicultural Centre in Botkyrka, Sweden, with a background in comparative literature and film studies. Her areas of expertise are postcolonial feminist theory and critical race and Whiteness studies, with a specific focus on reproduction and reproductive technologies. She completed the research project ‘Mediating Global Motherhood: Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Swedish Media Representations of Transnational Surrogacy and Transnational Adoption,’ funded by the Swedish Research Council, and is currently leading the research project ‘From Waste to Profit: Gender, Biopolitics, and Neoliberalism in Indian Commercial Surrogacy,’ also funded by the Swedish Research Council. She has published her research in journals such as Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, Catalyst, and Economic & Political Weekly. Kine Bækkevold is currently studying a Master’s degree in International Relations at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, during which she has also spent a semester of exchange at Science Po Lille in France. Additionally, she is taking a Post- Graduate Executive Diploma in the Art of Diplomacy at the European Academy of Diplomacy. She has fieldwork experience f rom Tanzania and lately Rwanda, after research activities conducted in cooperation with the Fafo Institute of Social and Labour Research. Bækkevold’s academic interests include economic diplomacy, international trade, strategic partnerships, migration, and refugee flows.   Lesego Motsage is a Master of Arts Candidate in Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg, as well as a Research Intern at the Institute for Pan-Af rican Thought and Conversation (IPATC). She holds a BA Social Sciences degree (cum laude) and a BA Honours in Politics and International V o l u m e 9 5 / 2 0 2 3 | J o u r n a l I S S N : 2 0 7 5 2 4 5 8 CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS EDITION Relations degree (cum laude). Her research interests are gender studies, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and the coloniality of knowledge. Marion Stevens has an academic background as a midwife, in medical anthropology and in  public and development management and has worked in sexual and reproductive justice for  over 30 years. Her work has included conducting participatory research, policy analysis and development, project management and governance and advocacy. Currently, she is registered  as a PhD candidate within the SARChI Chair in Gender Politics, Department of Political  Science, Stellenbosch University. She is also a Sol Plaatje Canon Collins Scholar. She is the  outgoing founding director of the Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition in South Af rica  and currently sits on the Gender Advisory Panel of the World Health Organisation. Nora Hattar is pursuing  a Master’s degree in Global Political Economy at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her academic background features  a Bachelor’s degree in human rights f rom Lund University. During this period, she had the opportunity to spend a semester of exchange at Universidad de Europea in Madrid, Spain. Nora’s academic endeavours have predominantly focused on human rights and politics in Af rica, and in 2021 she was one out of two students who were granted a scholarship f rom The Raul Wallenberg Institute to participate in the Zimbabwe Winter School on Human Rights. Currently, she is in South Af rica, engaged in f ieldwork for her Master’s thesis, in collaboration with SASUF and the Human Economy Lab. Additionally, Nora has worked with non-governmental organisations on an international scale. Her academic interests span political economy, labour rights, diplomacy, and sustainability. Suruchi Thapar-Björkert is Docent and Associate Professor at the Department of Government, University of Uppsala, Sweden. Her research trajectories cover the following areas: Gendered Discourses of Colonialism and Nationalism, Gendered Violence in India and Europe, Ethnicity, Social Capital and Social Exclusion, Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Qualitative Feminist Research Methodologies. Her f irst book, Women in the Indian Nationalist Movement: Unseen Faces: Unheard Voices, 1925–1942 (2006), was nominated as a Sage Classic and reprinted in 2015. Sven Botha is a Researcher at the Af rica Centre for Evidence in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Sven is simultaneously the Internationalisation Liaison in the Faculty of Humanities at UJ. His research interests include: Af rica-Nordic Relations, counter- terrorism, gender, foreign policy, and diplomacy. In 2022, Sven co-created the Student Essay Contest on South Af rica-Sweden Relations in partnership with the University of Johannesburg, the Embassy of Sweden in Pretoria, and the South Af rica-Sweden University Forum. Sven is also the Director of the Professors Without Borders Think Tank. Thea Tselepis is an Associate Professor in the South Af rican Chair Initiative (SARChI): Entrepreneurship Education and teaches in the Department of Business Management at the University of Johannesburg. She holds a PhD in Consumer Science with expertise on Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship and does interdisciplinary research on the problem solving of humans in various systems. Unathi Kolanisi is a Professor and Head of the Department of Consumer Sciences, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa, South Af rica. She has published extensively especially in relation to food security. Her research interests include  food and nutrition security, indigenous knowledge systems and innovation, human economy and social transformation, and sustainable food systems and nutrition sensitive food value chains.  She is a member of the Human Economy Lab initiative. Ylva Rodny-Gumede is the Head of the Division for Internationalisation and a Professor in the School of Communication at the University of Johannesburg. She holds a PhD f rom the School of Oriental and Af rican Studies (SOAS), London University as well as an MA degree in Politics f rom the University of the Witwatersrand in South Af rica and an MA in Journalism f rom Cardiff University in the UK. V o l u m e 9 5 / 2 0 2 3 | J o u r n a l I S S N : 2 0 7 5 2 4 5 8 CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS EDITION