Of the 32 Rhodes Scholars chosen from the United States this year, four have ties to Harvard University. But none of these winners is an African American.
But Harvard is also represented in the 10 Rhodes winners chosen from the southern Africa region which includes the nations of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. Matthews Mmopi graduated from Harvard last June.
Mmopi will study for a master’s degree in development studies at Oxford. He states, “I would like to examine the role of gender in shaping the political, economic, and social opportunities available to individuals in order to evaluate how African societies can close gender gaps in economic and political participation and access to education and health.”
