Kagiso Maphalle
South Africa

Kagiso A. Maphalle is a Senior Researcher and African Customary Law Expert at the University of Cape Town. She is an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, and a legal and cultural anthropologist. She has worked for the Commission for Gender Equality, NRF Chair in Customary Law, Indigenous Values and Human Rights, Centre for Law and Society, University of the Western Cape and the Parliamentary Monitoring Group. She holds an LLB degree from the University of Venda, an MPhil with Specialisation in African Customary Law and Women’s Rights and a Doctor of Philosophy in African Customary Law and Children’s Rights from the University of Cape Town. She is a Research Consultant for Customary Law Projects in the SADC region. She is also the founder of the Kagiso Maphalle Foundation which empowers rural communities through educational workshops on human rights and customary law. She is a member of the International Commission on Legal Pluralism, Social Scientist Research Network, Rutgers Institute of Women’s Studies, International Society for Third-Sector Research, African Law and Society, African Studies Association of Africa, the Human Development and Capability Association, and the African Studies Association. She has a blog called Life of a Researcher where she writes about her experiences in the field of customary law. Her research interests are in customary law, legal pluralism, gender law, succession and inheritance rights, women’s rights, child rights, human rights and development.