Masimba Musodza

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Masimba Musodza
Born
Julius Masimba Musodza'

(1976-03-29) March 29, 1976 (age 48)
Harare, Zimbabwe
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, Novelist, Producer

Julius Masimba Musodza (born 29 March 1976) is a Zimbabwean author.

Contents

Life

Musodza was born at the cusp of the emergence of the new Zimbabwe, the eldest son of a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Lands. The Musodza family are of the Buja people of Mutoko , north east Zimbabwe. Reading was encouraged in the Musodza household. He was educated at Avondale Primary School, Harare and St Mary Magdalene's High School, Nyanga. After school, he trained as a screenwriter, selling his first screenplay to Media For Development Trust in 2002. Barely a month after, as political and socio-economic uncertainty engulfed Zimbabwe, Musodza relocated to the United Kingdom, where he has lived ever since. He lives in the North East England town of Middlesbrough. [1] [2]

Writing

An avid reader as a child, Musodza aspired to be a writer from the time he discovered that it was possible to earn a living from it. [3] Musodza has contributed to StoryTime e-zine, which was founded by Sweden-based Zimbabwean author and publisher, Ivor Hartmann., [4] Jungle Jim, [5] Bookends, Winter Tales [6] [7] and other periodicals.

He is also the author of the first definitive science fiction novel in the Shona language, MunaHacha Maive Nei? [8] [9] Musodza states that he began to write science-fiction in ChiShona when he was 10, when he translated Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for his maternal grandmother. His use of ChiShona challenges the widely-held perception that indigenous languages lack the "sophistication" with which to conceptualise and articulate "complex" ideas such as are found in science-fiction. [10] [11] [12] He has also stated that he is inspired by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Decolonising The Mind. Musodza explores writing science -fiction in ChiShona in an essay, Writing and Publishing 'Complicated Stuff' in an African Language, which appeared in Vector 289, the magazine of the British Fantasy Association [13] He is one of two Zimbabwean writers who have been featured in Geoff Ryman's 100 African Writers of SF [14]

In addition to two personal blogs, Musodza, an advocate for Zionism, blogs for The Times of Israel . [15] He has taken part in the Battle for Ideas Festival [16]

Novels and novellas

Short fiction

Acting

Masimba Musodza's professional acting debut was in Edgar Langeveldt's play, No News, which premiered at Theatre-In-The-Park, Harare, in 1997. He also appears in a short film, Vengeance is Mine (2001) by Tawanda Gunda. However, it was not until he settled in Middlesbrough that he began to pursue acting more seriously. He appeared in a short play, To Be Or Not To Be, written by compatriot Dictator Maphosa, as part of the Middlesbrough Council-sponsored Boro Bites short plays (August, 2010). In 2011, he joined the Arc Sketch Group, an extension of the Writers Block North East workshops, [22] [23] [24] which put on themed sketch shows [25] at the Arc Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees until it disbanded in 2012.

Since then, Masimba Musodza has been a film and TV extra, appearing in such productions as Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (Episode 11), where he plays a Vani warrior. [26] He can also be seen in the festival teaser and UK trailer for Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake. [27] He has also appeared in Make! Craft Britain, which was aired on BBC4 on June 9, 2016. [28] His most recent appearance has been in the short film I Need help (Ben Stainsby, 2018), where he plays 'The Wise Man' [29]

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References

  1. ↑ Archived June 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ "TeesBlogs — The man from Zimbabwe, that writes on Teesside". Teesblogs.tumblr.com. April 29, 2015. Archived from the original on December 24, 2015. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Masimba Musodza". Africabookclub.com. November 17, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  4. ↑ Musodza's Profile on Story Time ezine Archived July 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "Masimba Musodza". Jungle Jim. May 8, 2012. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Winter Tales". Foxspirit.co.uk. August 28, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Read More African Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Stories". December 23, 2022.
  8. ↑ "First science fiction novel in ChiShona". Nehanda Radio. June 7, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  9. ↑ Mark Bould (August 23, 2013). "African Sf: Introduction". Paradoxa. Archived from the original on March 20, 2019. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  10. ↑ ""Kunyora muChiShona" na Masimba Musodza". March 4, 2021. Archived from the original on March 7, 2022. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  11. ↑ "African SF". May 24, 2020.
  12. ↑ https://fanac.org/fanzines/Vector/Vector289.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  13. ↑ Writing and Publishing 'Complicated Stuff' in an African Language, Vector 289
  14. ↑ "100 African Writers of SFF — Part Two: Writers in the U.K." November 2016.
  15. ↑ Breakstone, David. "Masimba Musodza | The Blogs | The Times of Israel". Blogs.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Masimba Musodza".
  17. ↑ "Masimba Musodza: The Confession of Hatifari Maforimbo". December 4, 2019.
  18. ↑ https://www.newsday.co.zw/southerneye/standard-style/article/200034769/musodzas-aquilina-translated-into-english
  19. ↑ https://lingua.olongoafrica.com/utu-ojii
  20. ↑ Article on [Ghanaweb.com]http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=181180
  21. ↑ Review of Yesterday's Dog "Masimba Musodza - Yesterday's Dog | Damian Kelleher". Archived from the original on September 25, 2010. Retrieved September 27, 2010.
  22. ↑ "Easter Funnies 2 at Stockton Arc". March 28, 2012.
  23. ↑ "Arc sketch group". July 9, 2012.
  24. ↑ "Easter 2021 in Stockton-on-Tees, EN | Annual Easter Egg Hunt & Things to do in Stockton-on-Tees, EN".
  25. ↑ "One Giant Leap |". fansonline.net. Archived from the original on June 5, 2012.
  26. ↑ "Science fiction Shona novel print version".
  27. ↑ "I, Daniel Blake: The trailer for Ken Loach's Palme d'Or-winner – video". The Guardian. June 15, 2016.
  28. ↑ "BBC Four - MAKE! Craft Britain, Special - Embroidered Lampshade Workshop".
  29. ↑ "I Need Help (2018) - IMDb". IMDb .
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