Ross Melczer

Ross’ work in Africa began in the late 1990s. He supported fundraising programs for the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry which provided  support for recently relocated Ethiopian Jewish immigrants in Israel. This led to spending time in Africa where Ross was moved by both the spirit and cultures of the African people, and the dire socio-economic realities facing many communities. on the continent. Ross became especially intrigued by Zimbabwe  the year before serious political and economic struggles revolving around questions of land ownership and access to resources culminated in the 2000 land reform. Back in California, Ross remained active in African relief organizations, working with Jewish World Watch in Los Angeles to provide support in Darfur, raise awareness about the risks and incidents of genocide, and promoted healing among survivors of mass atrocities. 

Ross’ interest in Africa  led him on an academic path. He earned a PhD in 2019 in Southern African History from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His  research focused on the intersection of African intellectuals, ethnicity, nationalism, and race in Botswana and Zimbabwe during the colonial era. It drew on biographical and borderlands history, ethnography, archaeology, cultural heritage conservation and management, and oral traditions. Ross’ book manuscript, The Fat Which is Begged for Does Not Make the Hair Pretty: K.T. Motsete and Self-Determination in the BuKalanga Borderlands, is based on the argument that the present day crisis in Africa is tied to the 1885 Berlin map, employed by European colonizers to arbitrarily carve up the African continent and create the existing (post)colonial borders without any consideration for African socio-economic or cultural realities. Via an examination of the ethnic minority Kalanga’s historical struggle to contend with the national border splitting the community between Botswana and Zimbabwe, The Fat Which is Begged for shows that 1885 Berlin map is the enduring architecture of (neo)colonialism and the key obstacle to African liberation in the twenty-first-century.

Ross is a participant in the Teaching Africa Teacher Certificate Program because he believes that it is important that K-12 students have the opportunity to engage with meaningful African related material. Ross is focused on developing a curriculum designed to introduce Middle and High School students to the problems of Eurocentric historical thinking and the innovative methodologies historians of Africa employ to portray Africans’ experiences. Ross is evaluating cutting edge African related online learning modules as a resource for K-12 history teachers interested in implementing African related subject matter.

Currently, Ross is developing cutting edge multidisciplinary African history related Secondary School curriculum and teaching Middle and High School students in Ventura County, California.