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News - Date: 18 July 2014
A collaborator of the Limpopo Mirror for many years, Prof Derrick Mashau, recently delivered his inaugural lecture at the University of South Africa (Unisa).
Mashau, who received his PhD in missiology at the North West University (NWU) in 2004, is now a full professor in the Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology in the College of Human Sciences at Unisa. The title of his inaugural lecture was Reimagining mission in the public square: Engaging hills and valleys in the African city of Tshwane.
Mashau was born and raised at the village of Ha-Mashau as the son of the late Chief Frank Mukhaswakule Mashau and Mrs Evelyn Nwa Murubana Mukhwevho. He is married to Ignetia Mashau (a lecturer in Inclusive Education at Unisa) and the two are blessed with four children, Mulanga Arehone, Rivhusanae Ndwelatsiwana, Ndwelavhawe Muzwali and Adaho Rivhawe.
He served as a lecturer at the NWU in 2001 and 2002, and in 2003 he was appointed as Professor of Missiology at the Theological School of the Reformed Churches Potchefstroom and, at the same time, appointed senior lecturer in theology at the NWU. At the time, it was still called Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, before the 2004 merger. He served as chairperson of the Department of Missiology from 2003 until 2013 and in March 2013 he joined Unisa.
As an academic, Mashau has promoted seven masters students and 11 doctoral students. He is currently working with five masters students and seven doctoral students. He is a prolific writer who managed to publish seven books, one of which was co-authored with an international author, Prof Roger Greenway, emeritus professor at Calvin Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids), who specializes in urban missions.
Prof Mashau has travelled the world and presented many papers at international conferences of note. He visited, among others, the following countries: Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Netherlands, Belgium, USA, Britain, Scotland, Finland, Canada and Indonesia. He has also presented guest lectures at numerous international institutions. He is currently serving as the secretary of the World Reformed Fellowship (African Region), deputy secretary of the Southern Africa Missiological Society, is a member of the board of directors of the association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) for Africa and is a founding member of the Centre for Reformational Urban Ministry in Africa (CRUMA). He has just completed his term as Board Chair of International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education. He is also a community builder of note who founded Theocentric Christian College in Venda and New Life Child Care Centre in Sunnyside (Tshwane).
In his lecture, Mashau deals with the question of the future of the Christian mission in the public square. It is his firm conviction that the future of Christian mission is in the city context, taking into consideration the vast urbanisation in the African context. In his view, African cities like Tshwane are not only exploding but also presenting the church with a new frontier for missionary work that needs to be crossed, without crossing geographical boundaries.
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