Yusuf Juwayeyi

Biography

Professor Yusuf Juwayeyi was born and raised in Malawi, south-east Africa. He received a Bachelor of Social Science degree in History and Sociology from Chancellor College, University of Malawi in 1973. In 1975, he went to the University of California, Berkeley where he obtained his Ph.D degree in 1981. Thereafter, he returned to Malawi to work in the Department of Antiquities of the Malawi Government, rising to position of Director of Antiquities in 1989. In 1992 Professor Juwayeyi was promoted to the position of Commissioner for Culture. This was a very senior position as the directors of the departments of Museum services, Antiquities, Arts and Crafts, National archives and Censorship Board reported to him. In 2000, he was appointed Malawi’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Professor Juwayeyi has also served on two major international bodies. From 1995-1999, he was the Sector Contact Point for the sector of Culture, Information and Sports of the Southern African Development Community. From 1994-1997, he was the Africa President and World Vice President of UNESCO’s World Decade for Cultural Development. Besides these responsibilities, Professor Juwayeyi taught at Chancellor College as a Senior Lecturer from 1998-1993 and as a Visiting Full Professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York in 1993-94 and 2001-02. He was also an External Examiner of Archaeology at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, in Tanzania in 1993. Professor Juwayeyi joined Long Island University, Brooklyn in 2002 as a Visiting Assistant Professor. In 2004, he accepted a tenure track position. He does research in archaeology and physical Anthropology in Malawi. He has carried out archaeological excavations at Stone Age and Iron Age sites in Malawi and has published results of his research widely. His major interests are on prehistoric economies during the Later Stone Age and Iron Age periods. Recently, he has focused on the emergence of complex societies during the Iron Age period. Following receipt of a National Science foundation grant in 2011, Dr. Juwayeyi is a co-investigator with a colleague from New York University, in a project called “Hard tissue research on Sub-Saharan Africans of known history,” which is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Malawi’s School of Medicine.

Research Interest

Later Stone Age and Iron Age archaeology; African Cultures and Civilizations, and traditional economies.