Department of Anthropology and Sociology

Christophère Ngolele

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Roles: Department of Anthropology and Sociology PhD Candidate
Department: Department of Anthropology and Sociology
Qualifications: BA, STL, Th.M, MSc
Thesis title: The Transition from Nomadic to Settled Life among Autochthonous Peoples: The Experience of the Mikaya of the Congo Basin Rainforest in the northwestern part of the Republic of Congo
Internal Supervisors: Professor Marloes Janson, Professor Catherine Dolan & Dr Naomi Leite

Biography

Christophère Ngolele is pursuing a Ph.D in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS, the University of London. He holds an S.T.L. and Th.M. in Theological Ethics and Social Theories from Santa Clara University in California, focusing on environmental ethics.

His thesis, titled “African Personhood and Christian Ethics Response to the Environmental Crisis: Toward a Paradigm of Recognition and Sacred Care ", reflects his engagement with the intersections of ethical theory and environmental concerns. Following the completion of his degrees, Ngolele worked as an assistant to the Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Management at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where he also lectured on social ethics. After two years, he pursued Anthropology and received a Master of Science in Social and Cultural Anthropology from KU Leuven, Belgium. Ngolele is working on his PhD in Anthropology at SOAS, investigating The Transition from Nomadic to Settled Life among Autochthonous Peoples: The Experience of the Mikaya of the Congo Basin Rainforest in the northwestern part of the Republic of Congo. Ngolele conducted a year-long ethnographic fieldwork with the Mikaya community — a group of hunter-gatherers — in the village of Péké in the department of Sangha, the northwestern part of the Republic of Congo.

His fieldwork was based on participant observation and interviews. Through his research, he examines the transition experience of the Mikaya people of Péké. This transition is understood here as both the empirical experience of the Mikaya people in Péké and an analytical category that evolves beyond a physical moment. It captures Mikaya’s lifeworld through the vector of lived practice and subjective experience. For his thesis, Ngolele aims to respond to the following question: How does the transition from nomadic to settled life among the Mikaya people of Péké in the Congo Basin Rainforest of the northwestern part of the Republic of Congo influence their culture and interactions with their neighbours? Additionally, Ngolele has participated in joint publication projects, published in a peer-reviewed journal and contributed chapters to edited volumes.