Mwenda Ntarangwi is a cultural anthropologist with an interest in symbolic and interpretive anthropology. He earned his BEd in language education and MA in Swahili Studies from Kenyatta University, Kenya and MA and PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Mwenda's research is on popular cultural expressions, the practice and history of anthropology, and inter-cultural engagement. He is the author of, among other works, The Street is My Pulpit: Hip Hop and Christianity in Kenya (Illinois, 2016), Reversed Gaze: an African Ethnography of American Anthropology (Illinois, 2010), East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization (Illinois, 2009), Gender Identity and Performance: Understanding Swahili Cultural Realities Through Song (Africa World Press, 2003), editor of Jesus and Ubuntu: Exploring the Social Impact of Christianity in Africa (Africa World Press, 2011), and co-editor of African Anthropologies: History, Critique and Practice (Zed, 2006).
Mwenda has carried out research in the US, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uganda and has traveled to Belgium, Botswana, Cameroon, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, England, Ethiopia, India, Mozambique, Norway, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Southern Sudan, and Zambia.
