Imelda Hoebes was raised in rural Namibia within a historically marginalized Damara (ǂNūkhoen) community, giving her lived insight into the structural barriers and colonial legacies that continue to shape African societies. She approaches her research as an indigenous sociologist, whose cultural background and shared colonial and apartheid histories with South Africa uniquely position her to connect lived experience with scholarly inquiry. As a researcher at KITLV, her interdisciplinary work explores the religious lives of enslaved people in the Dutch Cape Colony and their afterlives, investigating how colonial religious encounters continue to shape memory, identity, and social inequality in contemporary Western Cape communities, South Africa. 

A native speaker of Khoekhoegowab, Imelda is also fluent in English and Afrikaans, with conversational proficiency in Dutch. She holds an MA in Sociology and a BA in Psychology with a minor in History, both from the University of Namibia.

Before joining KITLV, she worked as a part-time lecturer and researcher at the University of Namibia (UNAM), teaching Rural Sociology, Gender Studies, and Namibian Society, while coordinating the UNAM Gender Advocacy Project. She has contributed to research projects across Southern Africa, including studies on family caregiving of older persons in collaboration with University of Cape Town, Equipped with 15 years of experience in academia and the development sector, she combines research with community engagement, NGO work, and government partnerships, reflecting a career-long commitment to amplifying marginalized voices and translating research into social impact.

Selected publications

Hoebes, Imelda, & Edwards, Lucy, ‘The role of cash incentives in HIV behaviour change: A case study based on the RHIVA programme in Namibia’, Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 8-2: 1–17, 2020. 

Hoebes, Imelda, ‘Women and housing: Katutura case study’, in: Namibia’s housing crisis in perspective 1: 119, Namibian Social Justice Coalition, 2021. 

Hoebes, Imelda Hoebes et al., 'Older persons and community care in Namibia [report]', University of Cape Town, 2024.