Supporting young, black womxn is a hallmark of HERI’s pursuit of diversity in the palaeosciences. The institute upholds that goal with the announcement of its Advancing Womxn fellows.

“We set out with the aim of fostering the next generation of black womxn in human evolution and I was blown away by these candidates,” says HERI’s Director Dr Robyn Pickering.

“It is an honour to welcome Precious Chiwara-Maenzanise and Rivoningo Khosa to HERI and the University of Cape Town as our inaugural cohort of fellows.”

Selected for on their excellent academic track records and clear passion for research, Pickering hopes they continue to thrive at HERI in the coming years.

“My hope for Rivoningo and Precious is that they find an academic home at HERI, a place where they can thrive as researchers and do excellent science,” she says.

From a young age, Precious Chiwara-Maenzanise has been interested in the past and how people came to be. That interest turned to passion as she studied archaeology at the University of Zimbabwe. Graduating with a master’s in 2018, she published her first paper the year before.

“I have always been inspired by a need to know what was happening in the ancient past,” she says. “When I entered university, I realised my research could help us understand more about how people evolved, and I was hooked.”

The HERI fellowship gives her an opportunity to build on that, and another passion – uplifting black womxn in science. “What first attracted me to HERI was that I’m a woman,” she says.

In Zimbabwe, she was a minority in a male-dominated archaeology department. “HERI’s aim of wanting to uplift black womxn in palaeosciences really attracted me,” she says.

It also comes with the opportunity to study at UCT, a lifelong dream come true. “It has always been a dream of mine to study at UCT, one of the best universities in Africa with one of the best archaeology departments in Africa,” she says.

She brings with her considerable research strength. Her PhD project examines early human social transmission during the MIS 5 in the Kalahari Basin, specifically Ga-Mohana Hill. As such, she will be co-supervised by HERI’s Dr Jayne Wilkins and Dr Yonatan Sahle.

“I’ve noticed that most stone age archaeology in South Africa focuses on modern humans in coastal regions and neglects the inland region,” she says. “I chose the Kalahari basin so we can build a full picture of human evolution.”

**Supporting**
womxn
in cosmogenic
isotope studies

Rivoningo Khosa

Isotope studies wasn’t Rivoningo’s original passion, but it seemed she couldn’t escape it. Studying geology and environmental sciences at the University of Johannesburg, a change happened while carrying out her master’s research.

“I wasn’t always keen on isotope study, but then it became something that really fascinated me,” she says. Part of it was connected to her research, and the other was being the only woman doing it.

“There are less than five postgraduate students in South Africa focussing on the kind of work I’m doing, and to my knowledge, I’m the only woman. That really drove me to continue and get my PhD,” she says.

Rivoningo’s PhD project is a continuation of her master’s, which analysed erosion rates of the Vaal River, largest tributary of the Orange River. Now, she’s analysing the Orange River, to identify whether data on the two rivers are the same and why.

This research provides key information into what South Africa looked like in the past, and what it was like for our early human ancestors and will be co-supervised by Pickering.

“I’m really interested in anabranching rivers and answering questions on how southern African rivers behave over time in general,” she says.

The research also means she gets to work with the only accelerator mass spectrometer in the Southern Hemisphere. Rivoningo’s project is co-sponsored by the National Research Foundation’s iThemba LABS, which supports isotope study by building advanced research labs.

“Ultimately, I want to contribute towards building lab spaces where anyone and everyone who wants to do these studies is able to,” she says.

Joining HERI not only supports this goal, but her future as a woman in palaeoscience studies. “I’m excited to jump on board and talk about womxn in science, especially womxn studying environmental isotopes in South Africa,” she says.