Zimbabwean academic Blessing-Miles Tendi has been promoted to professorial rank at the University of Oxford, receiving the title Professor of Politics after being awarded the university’s Recognition of Distinction by its Social Sciences Division.
Tendi, a Governing Body Fellow of St Antony’s College, is best known in Zimbabwe for his research on the military’s role in the country’s politics, including his 2020 book on the late retired army general Solomon Mujuru and his most recent work on the 2017 coup that removed former president Robert Mugabe from power.
In a statement announcing the promotion, St Antony’s College said the Recognition of Distinction is “an annual exercise that confers the title of professor to those who make a significant and sustained academic contribution to the university’s work.”
Tendi’s Scholarly Career
Tendi joined Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations in 2017, in a post jointly held with the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies. He previously held a departmental lectureship in African politics at the Oxford Department of International Development from 2011 to 2017, and before that worked as a risk consultant for Control Risks in London.
He is the sole author of three books: The Overthrow of Robert Mugabe: Gender, Coups, and Diplomats (Oxford University Press, 2025), Army and Politics in Zimbabwe: Mujuru, the Liberation Fighter and Kingmaker (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and Making History: Politics, Intellectuals and the Media (Peter Lang Academic Publishers and Weaver Press, 2012). A fourth book, Coups D’état: What They Are And Why They Are Back, is expected in 2026.
He has also co-edited two volumes on Southern African liberation movements and state politics in Zimbabwe, both published by Taylor and Francis, with fellow Africanist scholars Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor.
Tendi’s scholarship on the Zimbabwean military and presidential succession politics has made him a frequent reference point in Zimbabwean and international reporting on factional battles within the ruling Zanu PF party.
