Profile
Ib is an award-winning interdisciplinary Politics and International Relations scholar – trained in Africa and the UK. His research has been recognized by the most prestigious Early Career Research prize in African Studies in the UK, the 2024 African Studies Association (ASA-UK) Best Thesis Prize for his PhD ‘Made by China: the politics and implications of Chinese government funded and constructed parliament buildings in Lesotho, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.’ In addition, Ib received the 2023 Journal of Southern African Studies Terence Ranger Prize, for his article ‘Whose Building? Tracing the Politics of the Chinese government-funded Parliament Building in Lesotho’. His book China and African Parliaments, based on his PhD is forthcoming at the Oxford University Press (2025).
Ib is currently working on two major research projects, the Africa Elections Study and the Africa nuclear energy programme. The former draws on first-hand accounts of political and diplomatic elites, primary documents and ethnographic immersion, to trace, and interpret the history, contemporary practice, and political contestations of electoral integrity peer review mechanisms within African regional organisations. In the latter, Ib leads a seven-member interdisciplinary team from politics, law, nuclear physics and environmental studies that is mapping the politics of nuclear energy projects in Africa. The project aims to develop governance and technological tools to enhance sustainable nuclear safety in Africa.
Before joining SPIR, Ib was an Usawa Postdoctoral Research Fellow and a postgraduate module convener at SOAS. Ib is a recipient of the Chevening Scholarship Award which funded his MSc in Elections, Campaigns and Democracy at Royal Holloway, University of London. Prior to coming to academia, he was a leading figure in Zimbabwean civil society, where he founded a critical thinking and leadership development organisation – the Contemporary Affairs Foundation – managed United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) supported civic projects and participated in the Zimbabwe national constitution making process.
Research
Research Interests:
- China and the Global South
- African regional organisations and electoral integrity
- Parliamentary spacial politics and parliamentary strengthening in Africa
- The politics (and political history) of nuclear energy projects in Africa
- Politics of Sport in the Global South
Examples of research funding:
Ib’s recent work has been supported by the following grants:
SOAS, University of London Research grant (£5000)
European Research Council funded African State Architecture | SOAS University of London (PhD Studentship)
Publications
Peer-reviewed articles:
Batsani-Ncube. I (2022) Purpose-built parliament buildings and the institutionalisation of parliament in Lesotho and Malawi. Parliamentary Affairs. (DOI: gsac017)
Batsani-Ncube. I (2022) Whose building: tracing the politics of the China funded parliament building in Lesotho. Journal of Southern African Studies 48(5) DOI
10.1080/03057070.2022.2122385
Manful, K., Batsani-Ncube, I., & Gallagher, J. (2022). Invented modernisms: getting to grips with modernity in three African state buildings. Curator: The Museum Journal.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12505
Batsani-Ncube. I (2021) Governing from the opposition? Tracing the impact of EFF’s ‘niche populist politics’ on ANC policy shifts. Africa Review, (13) 2, pp 199-216.
Book chapter:
Batsani-Ncube. I (2022) China’s ‘parliament building gift’ to Malawi: Exploring its rationale, tensions and asymmetrical gains. In Tomkinson, J; Mulugeta, D and Gallagher, J (eds): Architecture and Politics in Africa: making, living and imagining identities through buildings: London: James Currey.
Book review:
Batsani-Ncube. I (2021) EXCELGATE: how Zimbabwe’s 2018 Presidential election was
stolen, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, (40) 1, pp 149-151.
Documentary Film
Batsani-Ncube, I (2023) Zimbabwe Chinese government and constructed funded parliament building, the African State Architecture Project, SOAS, University of London
Public engagement (selected):
Interview - South African Broadcasting Corporation. ‘Zanu PF re-elects Mnangagwa as president for another five years’. 30/10/2022
Op-ed - The Zimbabwe Independent Newspaper. 'Do Zimbabweans prefer democracy?'. 15/12/2017
Op-ed - The Zimbabwe Independent Newspaper. 'Advice to the new President'. 01/12/2017
Supervision
Ib is keen to hear from prospective PhD students working on the following areas: China – Global South relations, China – Africa relations & African politics – especially but not limited to Southern African politics.
Public Engagement
Ib has consulted for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, served Research team member of the LSE Research project on China-Global South Voting Alignment in the UN, served as Executive Director of the Contemporary Affairs Foundation and managed United Nations Democracy Fund supported civic interventions in Zimbabwe.
