Mhlophe (born 24 October 1958), known as Gcina Mhlophe, is a South African storyteller, writer, playwright, and actress. In 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. She tells her stories in four of South Africa's languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa, and also helps to motivate children to read.
Her childhood
Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe was born on 24 October 1958 in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal,[1] to a Xhosa mother and a Zulu father. Gcina's father worked at an oil company in Jacobs, South Durban basin, while her mother worked as a domestic worker. Born out of wedlock, she was separated from her mother at the age of 2. Shen went live with her father who was married with 8 children.[2]
She started her working life as a domestic worker,[3] and did not visit a library until she was 20 years old .[4]
Career
Gcina Mhlophe worked as a newsreader at the Press Trust and BBC Radio, then as a writer and a magazine for newly-literate people.
She began to get a sense of the demand for stories while in Chicago in 1988. She performed at a library in a mostly-Black neighborhood, where an ever-growing audience kept inviting her back. Still, Mhlophe only began to think of storytelling as a career after meeting an Imbongi, one of the legendary poets of African folklore, and after encouragement by Mannie Manim, the then-director of the Market Theatre, Johannesburg. From 1989 to 1990, she was resident director at the Market Theatre.
Mhlophe has appeared in theatres from Soweto to London, and much of her work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Swahili, and Japanese. She has travelled extensively in Africa and other parts of the world giving storytelling workshops.
Mhlophe's stories meld folklore, information, current affairs, song, and idiom. Storytelling is a deeply traditional activity in South Africa, and Mhlophe is one of the few woman storytellers in a country dominated by males. She does her work through charismatic performances, working to preserve storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read. She tells her stories in four of South Africa's languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa.
Her writing has appeared in collections including A Land Apart: A South African Reader (eds André Brink and J. M. Coetzee, London: Faber and Faber, 1986), Daughters of Africa (ed. Margaret Busby, London: Jonatan Cape, 1992) and Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region (ed. Margaret Daymond, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2002).
Other activities
Mhlophe mentors' young people, developing young talent to carry forward the work of storytelling through the Zanendaba ("Bring me a story") Initiative. This initiative, established in 2002, is a collaboration with the Market Theatre and READ, a national literacy organization.
She currently[when?] serves as the patron of the ASSITEJ South Africa, the International Association for Theatre for Children and Young People.
She runs a performance space called "The Storytelling Tree" in Durban.[5]
Molo! Zoleka New Africa Education, 1994. (Children's book)[19]
MaZanendaba and the Magical Story Shell (Children's book)[20]
The Snake with Seven Heads. Johannesburg: Skotaville Publishers, 1989. (Children's book, translated into five African languages, the English edition is required in all South African school libraries)[21]
Have you seen Zandile?. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1990. (Play, based on her childhood, required in South African university libraries)[22]
Queen of the Tortoises. Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1990. (Children's book)[23]
The Singing Dog. Illustrated by Erica Maritz and Andries Maritz. Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1992. (Children's book)[24]
Nalohima, the Deaf Tortoise. Gamsberg Macmillan, 1999.[25]
Fudukazi's Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. (CD – lyrics and music, performance)[26]
Fudukazi's Magic. Cambridge University Press, 2000 (CD – lyrics and music, performance, for German audiences)
Nozincwadi, Mother of Books. Maskew Miller Longman, 2001. (CD and book, South African roadshow to rural schools)[27]
African Mother of Christmas. Maskew Miller Longman, 2002. (CD and book)[28]
Love Child. Durban: University of Natal Press, 2002. (Memoir, collection of stories)[29]
Stories of Africa. University of Natal Press, 2003. (Children's book)[30]
Queen of Imbira. Maskew Miller Longman, 2003. (Children's book)[31]
Songs & Stories of Africa – South African Music Awards Winner 2010 for Best English Kids Album – African Cream Music[32]
^"The Power of Storytelling". The Connection. 26 May 2015. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2023. The connection was a radio program broadcast from WBUR FM in Boston... hosted by Dick Gordon
