The 32 Rhodes scholars from the United States will be announced later this month. But Rhodes Scholars are chosen from 23 other jurisdictions (more than 60 countries) around the world as well. Some of those selections have already been made.
Takhona Hlatshwako, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a new Rhodes Scholar from the Kingdom of Eswatini in Southern Africa (formerly Swaziland). Hlatshwako is the 52nd Rhodes Scholar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is among the first students from Eswatini to receive the Rhodes Scholarship. She was selected through the Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, and Eswatini Scholarship region established by the Rhodes Trust.
“I think it’s important for us to be represented in such a global community and to have our voices heard,” said Hlatshwako. “I’m humbled that I get to be the one to do that.”
Hlatshwako will pursue a fully-funded postgraduate degree at the University of Oxford in England beginning next fall. She plans to study for a master’s degree in international health and tropical medicine through the Oxford Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health within the Nuffield Department of Medicine. The course is a one-year interdisciplinary program that examines major health challenges of populations in low- and middle-income countries.
Following the completion of the program at the University of Oxford, Hlatshwako hopes to continue her graduate education to obtain a master’s degree in modeling for global health. Her goal is to earn a doctoral degree to become a global health scientist and to conduct research in global health, health equity, and infectious diseases
If Takhona Hlatshwak had any true African self-respect she would happily decline the Rhodes scholarship down because it’s named after and finance after the racist murderer and exploiter of Africa’s mineral resources, White British supremacist and imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Unfortunately, this ill-informed African woman from Kingdom of Eswatini will just continue being a happy go-lucky and historically ignorant African cleaning up the brutal history of racist Cecil Rhodes. For those who dissent, do you think a so-called Jewish college student would accept an scholarship after Adolph Hitler? I wonder why!