Rui Assubuji


Fellow: Research Associate

A former Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellow at the CHR, I took up a research associate position within the SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory in 2021. Video and photography are my professional background, with which I have been working since 1985, first as a cameraman employed at Mozambican National Television, free-lancing since 1992. In 2006 I completed Museum and Heritage Studies in Cape Town. For the MA project, I explored the photographic material deposited at Manuscripts and Archives at UCT belonging to Monica and Godfrey Wilson. As a PhD fellow and postdoc at the CHR, I worked on my dissertation submitted in 2021 with the title ‘A Visual Struggle for Mozambique. Revisiting Narratives, Interpreting photographs (1850 – 1930)’. My interest in audio-visuals is developing from its production to its usages, the spaces of memory and debate, the knowledge it creates, its storage, handling, management, conservation. Hopefully, my work will increase awareness of their significance and contribute to easier public access to these materials in archives and repositories.

Related News


Rui Assubuji: Jackman Humanities Institute Fellowship

The CHR congratulates Rui Assubuji on his recent appointment as Research Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto. Rui is currently a Research Associate within the SARChi Chair of Visual History and Theory and will be joining colleagues in Toronto in September where he will be working on his book manuscript and a multi-media exhibition based on the below proposal.

Spotlight on Documentary

The Documentary Film Project at the CHR is key to rethinking the humanities PhD, incorporating audio-visual content into a reimagining of an aesthetic education.

Kronos: Southern African Histories 46

The CHR is excited to announce the publication of Other Lives of the Image, a special issue of the journal Kronos: Southern African Histories.

SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory Review

The SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory underwent its first-phase review in 2020 and has been awarded a second phase of funding for 2021-5 by the National Research Foundation (NRF).

Seminar: Rui Assubuji

Speculate – troubling reducibility and blackness

Encounters Film Festival awards and special mentions

The CHR congratulates doctoral fellow Rui Assubuji on winning the Ster Kinekor Encounters Youth Experience Award for Best Short Film at the 20th Encounters Film Festival.

Encounters Film Festival

The CHR is pleased to announce that three documentaries produced as part of the Documentary Film course will show at this years 20th Annual Encounters South African International Film Festival.