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Profile
Research Areas
19th-century Christian mission movements, Gender, Colonialism, Identity, Ethnicity,
Profile
Dorothy Tembo holds a Ph.D. in Religions from SOAS, University of London obtained in 2018. Her research interests lie in the combined fields of colonialism and Christianity. Her work explores missionary and African agency in colonial Malawi. She uses historiographical methodologies to examine the impact of mission work on the construction of ethnic identities, gender, African marriage, and African religions in colonial Malawi. This involves delineating European and African voices in sources that are Eurocentric. She uses gender, religion, and identity as frameworks of analysis to recover African voices that have been distorted in the missionary and colonial archive. She primarily works with missionary archives from the Free Church of Scotland and Dutch Reformed Church Missions, Cape Town, South Africa.
Publications
- Book Chapters
Tembo, D. (2023). Christian Femininity in Independent Africa. In A. Barnes, T. Falola, Palgrave Handbook of African Christianity from Apostolic Times to the Present. (Forthcoming, Palgrave) (2024)
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003460978-18/lenshina-alice-mulenga-dorothy-tembo?context=ubx&refId=47a39545-98a0-4367-b9a6-0a272340e943
- Journal Article
Tembo, D. (2022). God, missionaries and race in colonial Malawi. Journal of Southern African Studies, 48(6), 1129–1132. (2023)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2022.2177437?journalCode=cjss20
- Journal Article
Tembo, D. (2024). Mission rivalries, conflicts and the construction of Protestant Christian identities in colonial Malawi. International Bulletin of Mission Research, (Forthcoming, 2024). (2023)
- Book Chapters
Tembo, D. (2023). “Christine Manda: of marginality and women’s representation in the Church" In M. Kaunda, M. Dube, L. Naicker, (Eds.), Mothering African Women's Theologies: Stories of Circle Founding Members, (Forthcoming, UNISA Press). (2023)
- Book Chapters
Tembo, D. (2024). “Lenshina Alice Mulenga: The Spirit of Resistance and Liberation" In M. Dube, T. Musili, S. Ansah-Owusu (Eds.), African Women Legends and the Spirituality of Resistance, Routledge Press. (2023)
- Journal Article
Tembo, D. (2022). Protestant Missionaries’ Understanding of and Attitude toward African Religion in Colonial Malawi. International Bulletin of Mission Research, 46(4), 555–563 (2022)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/23969393221098142?journalCode=ibmd
- Book Chapters
Tembo, D. (2020). “They were Kept Outside but their Interest was Inside”: An Examination of the Role of African Women in the Construction of Social Identities in Colonial Malawi. In K. R. Ross, W. O. Mulwafu, K. M. Phiri, & K. Fiedler (Eds.), Politics, Christianity and Society in Malawi (pp. 191–214). Mzuni Press. (2022)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2396939320987554
- Journal Article
‘Missionaries and the Construction of Christian Homes: Examining the Formation of African Social Identities in Colonial Malawi’, International Bulletin of Mission Research (2021)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2396939320987554
- Book Chapters
‘Mission Education and its Impact on the Construction of African Social Identities in Colonial Malawi (1875-1935).’ in Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu, Victor Chikaipa, Anthony Mavuto Gunde (eds) Education, Communication and Democracy in Africa: A Democratic Pedagogy for the Future, Routledge, 2021 (2021)
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003125440-19/mission-education-impact-construction-african-social-identities-colonial-malawi-1875%E2%80%931935-dorothy-tembo
- Journal Article
Tembo, D. (2020). Missionaries and the Standardisation of Vernacular Languages in Colonial Malawi, 1875-1935. The Society of Malawi Journal, 73(2), 1–17. (2020)
https://www.academia.edu/43556218/_They_were_Kept_Outside_but_their_Interest_was_Inside_an_Examination_of_the_Role_of_African_Women_in_the_Construction_of_Social_Identities_in_Colonial_Malawi
- Book Chapters
Tembo, D. (2023). “Christine Manda: of marginality and women’s representation in the Church" In M. Kaunda, M. Dube, L. Naicker, (Eds.), Mothering African Women's Theologies: Stories of Circle Founding Members, (Forthcoming, UNISA Press). (2020)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26978897
