Prof. B. Mapuranga

Barbra Mapuranga is an astute and vibrant author who has over the years risen through the ranks to be an Associate Professor in Disability and Gender, with the Zimbabwe Open University. Professor Mapuranga has immense interest in people with Special Needs and those living with disabilities. She is an avid researcher who has extensively published in both local and highly esteemed international publishing houses and journals. Being a veteran educationalist, and a teacher by both profession and calling, she has also contributed to the curriculums of both primary-level and tertiary-level content. She has published Primary School Religious and Moral Education scholarly books for grades 4-7 in circulation which are well sought after and in huge demand. She has published a plethora of modules that both undergraduates and post-graduates at various universities have found handy, especially when dealing with issues of interest and difficulties as far as Special Needs and Disabilities studies are concerned. Besides being an academic, Professor Mapuranga has excelled in motivational speaking and has been a keynote speaker at several conferences. She has been invited and addressed several gatherings and individuals as she successfully sought to give hope to the hopeless, to put more options on the table for those in need of counsel and battling mental health challenges, to instil that disability does not mean inability, and through such a passion, she has impacted and transformed many lives. Her motto, ‘Your disability must not define you’ has encouraged all people with various impairments to see their dreams come true. She has inspired many youngsters to become academics as she demystified the old stereotypical view that academics is a field that is reserved for the old mature ones. Professor Mapuranga is a mother of three lovely boys. The message that she preaches to our highly patriarchal society is, that being a woman, later a mother or even having a disability is not a limitation on its own, but rather is a provocation for one to defy all the odds and challenge the status quo. She sits on various boards including the Apostolic Faith Mission Education Board and also happens to be the National Publicity Secretary for the Zimbabwe Academic and Non-fiction Authors Association. She has served as National Secretary of the Forum for African Women Educationalists in Zimbabwe. Recalling her background, she is always giving.).

Contact her:

Email: mapubee@gmail.com, mapurangabee@zou.ac.zw and,

Cell numbers: 0772917026, 0715701818